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LIFE 



CHARLES SUMNER. 

BY 

/ 

JEREMIAH CHAPLIN 

AND 

J. D. CHAPLIN. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BY 

HON. WILLIAM CLAFLIN. 



4^^-'SS c 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY D. LOTHROP & CO. 

DOVKR, N. H. : G. T. DAY & CO. 
T874. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, 

Bt D. LOTHROP & CO., 

In tlie Office of the Librarian of Congress, at AVashington. 



BTEKEOTTPED AT THK 
BOSTON 8TEEE0TTPK FOTJNDET, 

19 Spring Lau«. 



n't 



//3 



PREFACE. 



In the belief that a Life of Charles Sumner, our 
great Senator, written in a somewhat popular style, 
would be welcomed by the public, this work has 
been carefully prepared from the most authentic 
sources. 

The writers have had access to private papers, 
and other sources of information, which have 
enabled them to give some hitherto unpublished 
incidents and letters. 

The works of Mr. Sumner have been carefully 
examined, and fitting selections from his speeches 
have been incorporated in the biography. His 
addresses are an integral part of the history of 
the times in which he lived, and they largely 
reveal his character. 

A full survey of Mr. Sumner's public career* has 
not been attempted. To do that, would have been 
to transcend the limits of our plan, which was, 

iii 



IV PEEFACE. 

rather, to dwell upon his connection with the one 
great subject which, above all others, called out 
his powers and developed his character. To the 
overthrow of American Slavery he g-ave his most 
earnest thought, and it was in this, his chief work, 
that his distinguished qualities of mind and heart 
are most conspicuous. He was a statesman in 
no narrow sense ; he was not a man of but one 
idea ; he was at home in all the business of legis- 
lation, in all foreign and domestic affairs. But he 
will be chiefly remembered as a philanthropist. 
Intellectually great, he was pre-eminently distin- 
guished as a lover of justice, a defender of 
humanity. His moral endowments and humane 
achievements will chiefly endear him to mankind. 
From these are to be gathered the most valua- 
ble lessons, especially for the young. 

Happy will it be for our country if her young 
men study his life, and emulate his example of 
unselfish devotion to the cause of humanity. Hap- 
py for her if her coming legislators believe that 
to be upright is to be practical, to be just is to be 
patriotic. 

Properly to present Mr. Sumner's philanthropic 
services, it has been necessary briefly to sketch the 



PREFACE. V 

progress of the anti-slavery enterprise up to the 
time when he became its foremost champion. 
Three chapters have, therefore, been given to the 
pioneers in that cause, and to the state of public 
sentiment upon the slavery question prior to Mr. 
Sumner's public life. 

In sketching his career, it has been almost a ne- 
cessity to cast his co-laborers into the shade. As 
we have not attempted a history of his times, but 
only of his special relation to the great question 
of the times, he seems to absorb to himself more 
than his share of attention. He was, indeed, a 
most conspicuous figure, great among the great, 
in some respects without a peer ; but the names 
of many men and women will come to mind who 
gave the full measure of noble talents and sweet 
charity to the cause of the humble and op- 
pressed — names that will never die. Without 
these to prepare the way, or to furnish the con- 
temporary support of sympathy, of encouragement, 
of prayer, of sacrifice, Mr. Sumner could never 
have achieved those deeds which will make his 
name immortal. 

The writings of Mr. Sumner abound in noble 
sentiments, and in the fruits of rich and varied cul« 



VI PEEFACE. 

ture. They are eminently worthy of perusal by 
the rising generation. But above all, his life, in 
which those sentiments found their most consist- 
ent and best illustration, deserves to be studied 
for its example of unwavering devotion to duty. 
To do right, to serve mankind, to obey God, was 
the high purpose for which he wrought. Such a 
life, in the inspiration which it imparts, in the 
lessons which it teaches, must be an abiding and 
ever-widening power in the world. It is grandly 
practical. It shows the path of true success. 

To friends who have kindly and greatly aided 
our work by letters of Mr. Sumner, and by vari- 
ous valuable information, we here express our 
grateful appreciation of their help. 

The invaluable work of Vice-President Wilson, 

Eise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 

has been consulted in preparing a portion of this 

volume. 

J. C. 

J. D. C. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The people of the whole country realize, now, 
the loss they have sustained by the death of Sen- 
ator Sumner. His place in the Senate cannot be 
filled from his native State, or any other. 

While he lived, the people felt that there was 
one man in the national councils whose voice was 
ever ready in defence of the right, and in oppo- 
sition to injustice or wrong. That voice is for- 
ever hushed. 

The fame of the great statesman, orator, and 
philanthropist reaches all civilized lands ; and all 
classes, here, desire to know his history from the 
beginning to the end of his life. This is not 
strange, when it is remembered that only two 
men exceeded his term of service in the Senate, 
and that neither of them held the position during 
a very eventful period in the history of the coua- 

vii 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

try, or made himself especially distinguished be- 
yond his own immediate locality. 

Few persons have used their opportunities for 
obtaining an education so faithfully as Mr. Sum- 
ner. Endowed by nature with great intellectual 
powers, possessing a genius for statesmanship 
and philanthropy of the first order, he early de- 
voted himself to most diligent study of all mat- 
ters relating to jurisprudence, international law, 
and the principles of government. 

In the order of Providence he was kept from 
the first struggles of the party of freedom. He 
was preparing for the great work before him. 
When, therefore, he entered upon his career in 
the Senate, he was better fitted than any one of 
his associates to meet the tremendous responsibil- 
ities which soon pressed upon him. 

He gave himself to the cause dear to him and to 
every lover of liberty, without the least reserve or 
hesitation. All private business was laid aside, 
that he might devote hinaself to the accomplish- 
ment of the object for which the people of his 
State sent him to the Senate. 

The great political struggle in the legislature 
which resulted in his election had drawn the atten* 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

tion of the country to him. Nor were the feople 
long kept in ignorance of his purposes and pwer. 
His first great speech showed the i^pth If bis 
moral convictions, and his determination to|leive 
nothing undone to free the land frcm' the ^li^ht- 
ing curse of slavery. 

Thenceforth there was no cessation of hostility 
to him and his measures on the pirt of the up- 
holders of that system. All their denunciancus 
however, had no effect upon him. He wa? one 
of the foremost of the noble banl of stafesmeu 
who deemed all other questions sibordiuate while 
slavery existed. 

Altbougli its abolition was paranount wittihim, 
yet there never was a greater mistake thn to 
suppose that he was not a practical man ii mat- 
ters pertaining to his oflSce. He was familia with 
the whole machinery of government, and kne' how 
to accomplish an object in the shortest pssible 
time. This was attested, again and again, bjthose 
having business before Congress or the epart- 
ments,in which it was proper to ask his inuence 
and cooperation. 

But f a doubtful scheme or claim waste be 
carried through, he was the most impractcal of 



X INTRODUCTION. 

mci Professional lobbyists knew, well enough, 
thitif a thing was right, he would favor it, but 
if qiestioiaWe, no tactics, however skilful, would 
secjuie his support. 

in all h.s long official life no one dared to im- 
peach his integrity or question his motives. En- 
tire! devotion to duty, undeviating rectitude, and 
ugh moral convictions guided and controlled him. 

Tie sudden termination of a life so intimately 
lionatcted witl the government, and so potent in 
its iifluence, riakes impressive these traits, rarely 
fount in the aost distinguished statesmen of the 
worll 

TM a characier so noble may be clearly brought 
befoi^ the masses, and especially before the young 
men |ho are socn to hold positions of honor and 
trust In the State and Nation, is the purpose of 
this ilume. 




^tv_ce. /^^ "7 













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/C''\*«==.-Ay^'^ — 









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" Humbly do I recognize the authority of Him who, when 
reviled, reviled not again; but His divine example teaches 
me to expose crime, and not to hesitate, though the Scribes 
and Pharisees, chief priests and money-changers, cry out." 

"Liberty has been won; the battle for Equality is still 
pending." 

"To be a man is a sufficient title-deed for the rights of 
man." 

" Say, in lofty madness, that you own the sun, the stars, 
the moon ; but do not say that you own a man, endowed with 
soul to live immortal, when sun, and moon, and stars have 
passed away." 



^ >4k^ ^>v— ^o^ 




LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth of Charles Sumner. — His Parents. — Eis 
Ancestry. 

An event so common as the birth of a child 
makes little stir in the busy world; and even 
when Heaven is so lavish of its blessings as to 
send two little ones to the same home at once, it 
brings joy only to the limited circle of relatives 
and friends who can enter into the happiness of 
the parents. 

On the 6th day of January, 1811, Charles 
Pinckney Sumner and Relief, his wife, were glad- 
dened by the birth of their first children, Charles 
and Matilda. 

The little new-comers to the great, strange 
2 17 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 19 

passed the house where lay sleeping the future 
senator — the little Samson, who was to take so 
large a part in slaying the lion that was threaten- 
ing the life of the nation, and in pulling down the 
gates with which oppression had guarded her 
strong cities. 

One of God's anointed had come to do a mighty 
work for him and for humanity. But he had 
appeared without the prophecy of seer, or the 
heralding song of rejoicing angels ; and he lay 
there as little an object of terror to Southern op- 
pression, as was the Babe of Bethlehem, on the 
night of his advent, to the imperious rulers of the 
East. And yet the birth of Charles Sumner was a 
great event to Massachusetts, to America, and, 
more than all, to millions of slaves groaning under 
the lash and trembling before the auction-block. 

America had broken her own fetters, but she 
had gathered up the links and welded them anew 
on the limbs of defenceless strangers. But she 
was not quite at ease in her oppression. She was 
beginning to hear the voice of God — to be 
afraid. 

Some men aflfect to despise ancestry, and even 
regard it as Democratic to boast of a low origin. 



20 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Men of noble heart and earnest life have, indeed, 
come up to bless the world from coarse and igno- 
rant families ; but their success has been in 
spite, rather than in consequence, of their origin. 
The Scriptures, which teach the truest humility, 
hold up to us the great blessing of an upright 
and godly ancestry. Wealth does not settle the 
question of pedigree, . The noble of the earth 
are those who are moved by high moral principle 
and unselfish aims, let their worldly condition 
be what it may. We often see nobility under the 
garb of toil, and meanness beneath purple and 
fine linen. 

The greatest and grandest specimen of hu- 
manity that ever walked the earth (for Jesus was 
as truly human as divine) wrought with the tools 
of the artisan, ate the bread of toil, and slept the 
sleep of the laboring man, which is sweet. 

Decker, an old English poet, says, — 

" the best of men • 
That e'er wore earth's garb about him — 
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; 
The first true gentleman that ever breathed." 

None will deny that it is a great blessing to 
have come of a long line of noble and honorable 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 21 

men, who, having served God and theh'.genera- 
tion, left to their descendants an inheritance of 
moral, physical, and intellectual strength. In 
such a parentage Charles Sumner was singularly 
blessed. 

The ancestor who emigrated to this country 
was William Sumner, a sturdy Puritan, born in 
Kent, England, in 1605, and "made a freeman," 
that is, admitted to the privileges of citizenship, 
in Massachusetts, in 1637. Next comes his son 
Eoger, and his grandson. Seth, and then Job, the 
grandfather, and Charles Pinckney, the father of 
the great senator who has just passed away. 

Job Sumner was a student' at Harvard when 
the revolutionary war broke out. Ho dropped 
his books, gave up all his literary plans, at his 
country's call, and, immediately after the battle 
of Lexington, joined the army, in which he rose 
to the rank of major, and where he remained until 
the close of the war. 

Charles Pinckney Sumner was a graduate of 
Harvard, a gentleman of high culture and stern 
integrity, accomplished in all the etiquette of 
society in his day, and noted for his free and 
genial hospitality. He was a lawyer of eminence, 



22 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

and was for some years sheriif of Suffolk County. 
It was during his term that Boston was disgraced 
by the anti-slavery riots, which opened her eyes 
to the true character of the slave power, and 
brought her into the front ranks in the battle for 
freedom. 

In the year 1810 Mr. Sumner married Relief 
Jacobs, daughter of a substantial farmer of Han- 
over, in " the Old Colony," who became the 
mother of nine children. 

She had many and deep afflictions. Two of 
her beautiful children fell at her side in their 
early years ; two were lost at sea ; others died in 
their full manhood ; and for many years she knew 
the heart of a widow. But she bore her sor- 
rows with strong trust and fortitude. Rev. Mr. 
Foote, of King's Chapel, who was her pastor in 
her declining years, says of her, — 

" Mrs. Sumner was a woman of retiring sim- 
plicity of life, but of strong and heroic traits of 
character ; and those who knew her could trace 
in the senator's noblest characteristics a direct 
inheritance from her. The lofty and resolute 
sense of duty by which she was governed was 
strikingly illustrated by the following incident, 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 23 

which occurred while she was on her death-bed. 
A few days before she died, as a friend bent over 
her to receive what she supposed to be her dying 
message to her son, then at Washington, during 
the session of Congress, she caught these words 
from the failing lips : ' Tell him his country needs 
him more than his mother does now.' He re- 
turned, however, instantly, on receiving tidings 
of her fatal illness, and had the satisfaction of 
being with her when she died." * 



* Matilda (twin sister with Charles) died in March, 1832, aged 21 
years ; Jane died in October, 1837, aged 17 years ; Mary died in 
October, 1844, aged 22 years ; Horace was drowned in the wreck of 
the ship Elizabeth, on Long Island, July 16, 1850, on his return 
from abroad ; Albert was lost with his family in the wreck of the 
Lyonnais, November, 1856 ; Henry died at Orange, N. J., in 1856 ; 
George died October 6, 1863, in Boston, aged 46 years. One child, 
Mrs. Julia Hastings, of San Francisco, is still living. 

George Sumner was a man of varied accomplishments. He en- 
joyed the advantages of study at the foreign universities of Berlin 
and Heidelberg, and travelled in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Like 
his l)rother Charles, he was mnch interested in international law, 
and in the political, social, and philanthropic institutions of differ- 
ent countries. He was a strong foe to war and slavery. He wrote 
in favor of the Philadelphia Penitentiary System. In connection 
with Dr. S. G. Howe, he introduced into the United States the edu- 
cation of idiots. He wrote articles, not only for American, but for 
English, French, and German periodicals. He spent many years 
abroad, and was often consulted by foreign governments on ques- 
tions of pol itical economy. De Tocqueville spoke of him " as know, 
ing the different parties and politics of Europe much better than 
any European with whom he was acquainted." 

In 1859, within less than five months, he gave one hundred and 



24 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

One who knew Mrs. Sumner, and who saw her 
when her son was rising to eminence, noticed the 
motherly pride which she would not conceal. 
When asked how he gained so many and great 
acquirements, she replied, " Charles, when a boy 
was a good scholar, and always diligent in his 
studies." Her pride was not vanity. She did 
not boast of his genius, but only of application 
and industry. Mrs. Sumner died in June, 1866, 
aged eighty-one. 

But not to his mother alone belongs the 
glory of rearing such a son for his country and 
for humanity. His father was not only a gentle- 
man and a scholar, but also a philanthropist of 
the purest type, whose talents were not spent for 
self-adulation or ambition, but were laid on the 
.altar to whose smoking fagots the boy that bore 
his name was a new torch, to alarm the oppressor, 
and burn up, like chaff, his imaginary wealth. He 
was a strong anti-slavery man, when anti-slavery 
men were few and their principles unpopular. 

two lectures in towns and cities of the United States, On July 4 
of that year he delivered the Annual Oration before the niunieipal 
authorities of Boston, which was spoken of as an " adrairablo 
address." The orator censured in severe terms the Dred Scott de- 
cision of Chief Justice Taney, 



•life of CHARLES SUMNER. 25 

He was also a great advocate of peace princi- 
ples. From '^ The Compass, a Poetical Perform- 
ance," delivered by him at a Literary Exhibition, 
in September, 1795, at Harvard University, we 
extract the following, which shows the seed that 
bore such rich fruits of justice, philanthropy, and 
peace in the heart of his son : — 

" We antedate the time 
When futile war shall cease through every clime, 
No sanctioned slavery Afric's sons degrade, 
But equal rights shall equal earth pervade : 
When fearless Commerce, by the compass led. 
On every wave her sacred flag shall spread ; 
With liberal course to either pole shall run, 
Or round the zodiac travel with the sun ; 
No narrow treaty sell the boundless sea, 
Which Nature's charter to the world made free ; 
When all the compact which this globe shall bind 
Shall be the mutual good of all mankind." 

Charles Pinckney Sumner was the last high 
sheriff who wore the antique dress which was till 
then here, as in England, the badge of office ; and 
it is said that it accorded well with his command- 
ing person and dignified bearing. 

Descended from a hardy stock of old Kentish 
yeomanry, men noted for their fine physical de- 
velopment, their powers of endurance, their skill 
in athletic games, and their bravery in battle, — 



26 LIFE OP CHAELEB SUMNER. 

and in later times from men who, to these advan- 
tages and qualities, added the learning of the 
schools and the graces of society, — Charles Sum- 
ner belonged to the aristocracy of nature and of 
education, rather than to that of blood or of 
wealth. 

Increase Sumner, an eloquent man, an able 
judge, and one of the governors of Massachu- 
setts, shows the principles of the Sumners, in 
which this one, their brightest ornament, was 
reared. Just before the revolutionary war he 
wrote, — 

" The man who, regardless of public happiness, 
is ready to fall in with base measures, and sacri- 
fice conscience, honor, and his country merely for 
his own advancement, must (if not wretchedly 
hardened) feel a torture the intenseness of which 
nothing in this world can equal." 

In one of his charges , as judge, he said, 
" America furnishes one of the few instances of 
countries where the blessings of civil liberty and 
the rights of mankind have been the primary ob- 
jects of their political institutions ; in which the 
rich and poor are equally protected ; where the 
rights of conscience are fully enjoyed ; and where 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 27 

merit and ability can be the only claim to the 
favor of the public. May we not, then, pronounce 
that man destitute of the true principles of liber- 
ty, and unworthy the blessing of society, who 
does not, at all times, lend his aid to support and 
sustain a government ? " 

This man — who was a prince and a ruler in the 
land in early times — was a cousin of Charles 
Pinckney Sumner, and was the son of a yeoman 
of Roxbury, who was noted, like the others of the 
name, for his physical strength, and also for his 
untiring energy and ambition in the sphere 
where God had placed him. 



28 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNEE. 



CHAPTER II. 

CJiildJiood. — School Days. — Story of a Stick, — 
Enters Harvard University. — Severe Applica- 
tion to Study and Beading. — Trip to a Brigli- 
ton Cattle Show. 

Charles Sumner does not come before us in 
his boyhood as one of those preoocious little 
book-worms or baby philosophers who now and 
then startle the world as intellectual monstrosi- 
ties, but as a vigorous boy, naturally studious 
and thoughtful. 

His splendid physical development, which 
made him, in manhood, a Saul among his fellows, 
proves conclusively that he did not in boyhood 
sit bowed and moping over his school books 
without exercise or recreation. He ran, full 
of glee, down Beacon Hill, and over the Common, 
drawing his sled to the coasting- ground or carry- 
ing his boat to the pond ; shouting and hallooing 
at his success, just as the boys of to-day do in 
the same play and at the same places. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 29 

A story is told of him that illustrates one trait 
of his character, which " grew with his growth 
and strengthened with his strength." 

There had been a dispute between him and 
some other boys about a stick of which he had 
possession, and a sharp contest ensued. The 
world was full of sticks, but that particular one 
was his by right, and he meant to keep it. 

The others pulled, but he tightened his little 
fists about it, and held bravely on. One of his 
antagonists then tried a new game. He caught 
up a stone, and began pounding his knuckles, 
sure that the pain would cause him to relax his 
grip. 

But little Sumner pressed his lips together, 
and still held on. Blow after' blow fell on the 
delicate hands till the blood began to flow. 

At sight of this, the little assailant fled in 
terror, and left Sumner in possession of the pre- 
cious stick, and of the consciousness of having 
maintained his rights. 

Little Sumner attended both private and public 
schools in Boston until he was ten years of age. 

He read history, which was his delight, and, 
without advice or urgency from any one, he 



30 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

bought with his spending-money a Latin Gram- 
mar and Reader, and had made some little pro- 
ficiency in the rudiments of that language before 
his parents knew that the books were in his 
possession. He studied for his own pleasure, 
rather than that he might stand well in his 
classes. 

In his eleventh year, he entered the Boston 
Latin School, where his diligence soon gave him 
a high standing, under the instruction of Benja- 
min Gould, an eminent man of that day in his 
profession. Here young Sumner took prizes for 
English composition and Latin poetry, and on 
graduating received the Franklin medal. 

He entered Harvard when only fifteen years 
of age, a strong,- finely-developed and elegant- 
looking boy, and gave himself up to hard study 
with as much earnestness and zeal as if there 
was no such thing as boyish play in the world. 

We should naturally expect that a youth of 
such striking appearance and studious habits 
would become at once a prodigy in college. 
But it was not so. He seems to have been re- 
markable there only for his correct deportment 
and his severe application to his chosen studies. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 31 

His aim was not for the first place in his class, 
but for a thorough education ; else he 'might have 
gone up with the light of the rocket, and then 
vanished in sudden darkness, as do not a few 
who are much talked of in college, but are 
never heard of afterwards. 

He applied himself not alone to his text-books ; 
he read very widely, storing his mind with the 
history and the literature of many lands, thus 
transplanting into his wondrous memory the 
flowers with which the writings and speeches 
of future years are graced. 

To these pursuits, which were foreign to his 
class studies, he devoted the early hours of 
morning, pilfering no time from the requirements 
of the appointed course for studies more con- 
genial to his taste. 

He also read far into the night, and when- 
his less studious companions returned late from 
Boston, where they had been on social visits or 
to public entertainments, they always saw the 
light in Sumner's window, reminding them that 
there was one earnest student who could not be 
drawn away from his books by the allurements 
of pleasure. He was so wedded to his studies 



32 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

as to have almost no time for what is called 
" society " by collegians. 

There were at Harvard at the same time with 
him several men who have since become distin- 
guished as reformers, philanthropists, and in the 
world of letters ; men, with whom the boyish 
friendship of that time deepened into a strong 
and sympathetic love, which encouraged and 
strengthened him in his subsequent battles for 
the right. 

While we have no record of remarkable 
brilliancy at college, we know that he was 
studying with a purpose, and also that he kept 
himself entirely aloof from the follies and vices 
which were then regarded as almost inseparable 
from college life, but which social advance is now 
putting in their right place. His natural dig- 
nity, as well as his high principles, kept him from 
everything that would wound others or degrade 
himself. 

He was the same gentleman at heart then as 
afterwards in the Senate, when he had acquired 
, that perfect knowledge of society and its subtile 
etiquette for which he was so remarkable. 

At that early period he was as considerate as 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 33 

he was in after years. He tried every action by 
the standard of right. For example, while he 
was ever kind and obliging to his college mates, 
and ready to do any one of them a favor, there 
was one positive exception — no lazy fellow 
could persuade him to help his preparation for 
the recitations in Greek and Latin by translating 
his lessons for him. He thought it wrong to en- 
courage laziness. A worker himself, he was 
ready to help others work in a good cause ; but 
farther he would not go. In after years he had 
little patience with shirks and shams. He was 
genuine, and he honored genuine worth as above 
all price. 

The only time we hear of his breaking college 
rules was when, very desirous of attending a 
cattle show at Brighton, he set out with a friend 
.without permission. 

On their way, the truants unfortunately were 
overtaken by two gentlemen bound in the same 
direction, who proved to be their fathers ! 

"Why, Charles," asked Mr. Sumner in sur- 
prise, " how came you here ? " 

" I wanted to go to the cattle show," was the 
reply of the young culprit. 
3 



34 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

" Had you permission to leave your classes ? " 
asked the father. 

'' No ; but we shall lose no recitations by our 
absence," replied the student. 

And, like wise men, the fathers made no 
further objections. So the boys saw the cattle, 
and got back to Cambridge in season to avoid 
any trouble with the faculty. 

There was, doubtless, then, in his nature, the 
incipient seeds of that delight in cattle which 
made him in after years such an adept in 
the science of stock-raising — a branch of study 
so widely differing from his life's work. 




LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNEE. 35 



CHAPTER III. 

Sumner'' s Law Studies. — Literary Work. — His 
First Great Sorrow. — Seeldng for a Compli- 
ment. — Students changing Plans. — Failing 
Health. 

Chaeles Sumnee graduated from Harvard in 

1830, being then nineteen years old. 

The following year was spent at home in pri- 
vate study and reading, and in preparation for 
his next step in life. 

He entered the Cambridge Law School in 

1831. Judge Story was not long in discovering 
those rare qualities and that untiring diligence 
which afterwards made him so great a favorite 
with that eminent jurist. 

It would seem that the literature and princi- 
ples of his future profession, rather than its 
practice, were the alluring charm to him, and to 
these he applied himself with characteristic 
ardor, amounting almost to a passion. 



36 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

He was never satisfied with accepting anything 
second-hand, but invariably went to the original 
sources for the facts and arguments. 

He read Kent's Commentaries in a way peculiar 
to himself, carefully looking up and examining 
every case referred to. 

He began his researches in the law far back in 
the rude Norman, proceeding downward to the 
most recent authorities. 

So familiar was he with the Law Library at 
Cambridge (of which he was librarian), that it is 
said he could go into it in the dark, and take any 
book he wanted from a shelf. 

His great power of acquiring and retaining 
knowledge soon distinguished him above his 
fellows. 

While yet a student, Mr. Sumner became a 
contributor to the literature of his profession, 
and published several articles in the " American 
Jurist " and " Boston Law Quarterly," all of 
which were marked by deep research, breadth 
of thought, and subtile ingenuity, which gave 
great promise of future usefulness. 

In 1832 Mr. Sumner met the first great sorrow 
of his life. The sister, whose being was almost 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 37 

one with his own, who had been his playmate in 
babyhood and in childhood, his admiration, his 
pride, and his good angel in youth and dawning 
manhood, a girl remarkable for her personal 
beauty and for her loveliness of character, was 
removed by death, leaving a void such as is sel- 
dom felt in the heart and the life of a man by the 
loss of a sister. 

We can imagine how dark a shadow the wing 
of death cast over every page of his books, and 
how the brightness of the future he had pictured 
for himself faded, now that his other self was no 
longer there to sympathize in his labor and to 
triumph in his success. Their double heart was 
divided, with bitter pangs to the living ; and even 
when the keenness of the pain had passed away, 
and time had healed — as it always does in mercy 
— the gaping wound, the memory of that sweet 
face and that pure life was enshrined, almost as. 
an idol, in the heart of the great man, coming 
back to him in his dreams, and softening the 
spirit which was in danger of being hardened 
by intercourse with bitter foes and wavering 
friends in his mighty struggle for principle. 

Like most brilliant and ambitious students, 



38 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

Sumner was possessed by a strong love of appro- 
bation ; so marked at this time as to amount to 
almost a weakness. 

A classmate, now one of the leaders of the 
Suffolk Bar, relates the following, which shows 
that, high as he stood with his instructors, he 
was not above the reach of an occasional rebuff 
from them. 

The two students were together one day in 
Sumner's room, when they saw Professor Ash- 
mun approaching. Sumner playfully lemarked, 
" Now I am going to get a compliment from 
the professor." 

He gave his teacher a polite reception, and 
when he was seated, offered him a cigar. As soon 
as Professor Ashmun was in a happy mood, Sumner 
began by saying, " There is a lawyer down on 
the Cape who says he can beat any man in the 
state at special pleading, but that — Ashmun." 

An expression of pleasure passed over the pro- 
fessor's countenance, and Sumner proceeded. 

He passed his hand over his forehead, with an 
air of discouragement, and said, " As for myself, 
I feel that I don't know anything, " and then 
paused for the expected reassuring compliment ; 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 39 

when, to the amazement of both, the professor 
cried out, in a stern voice, " No, you don't 
know anything; and what's more, you never 
wiU." 

This rebuke was so unlocked for and so 
crushing, that, although he must have known that 
it was spoken in the spirit of a joke, Sumner felt 
it keenly. His classmate, seeing this, came to his 
relief by changing the subject. That classmate 
never know him to fish for a compliment again 
while in the Law School. 

Mr. Sumner had a classmate who was from one 
of our most cultivated and wealthy families, and 
with whom he was on terms of the closest 
intimacy. 

The difference in their circumstances — al- 
though Mr. Sumner was by no means poor — 
was very ^reat. Not long before his death, in 
speaking of that friend, who was still a friend, he 
said, " I well remember the feelings I had when 

's mother used to drive over to Cambridge to 

see her son in her fine carriage, as my mother 
could not do." 

This friend had at that time a high ambition 
for being a statesman, and used to dwell on his 



40 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

plans, when Sumner's desire was to be a jurist, 
with no dream of the popular favor or the popular 
fickleness wbich he was afterwards to enjoy and to 
suffer, and which cried for years, " A god has come 
down to us in the likeness of a man ; " and again, 
" He hath a devil," and almost robbed liim of the 
coveted name of " patriot." 

The young aspirant for honor in the higher 
walks of law became a statesman, and he who 
desired to shine in the forum has filled the no 
less noble sphere of a philanthropist ; and al- 
though both changed their plans, they wrought 
through life, hand in. hand, and shoulder to shoul- 
der, in the mighty work for liberty and equality, 
and the living one now mourns for the dead as 
for a brother. 

Mr. Sumner's fine constitution was not proof 
against the heavy burdens he was laying upon it 
by his close and unremitting study. At the first 
peep of day he was poring over his books, which 
he never closed till the small hours of the next 
morning sounded out their warnings from the 
clocks in the towers. He confessed afterwards 
that he always studied eighteen hours out of 
the twenty-four ; so we need not wonder, espe- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 41 

cially when we know that members of his family- 
have died with pulmonary disease, that his health 
gave way, and that he at one time seemed draw- 
ing near to the grave, with every symptom of con- 
sumption. This involved a suspension of study, 
and months of quiet and rest ; after which he waa 
able again to return to his work at Cambridge. 



42 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Returning Health. — Graduates from the Law 
School. — Enters the Law Office of Rand and 
Fiske. — His Aim hi Life. — A Winter in Wash- 
ington. — Attentions from prominent Men at the 
Bar. — Editorial Work. — Admission to the 
Bar. — Testimony hy a Fellow- Student. — Love 
of Approbation. — Declines a Professorship at 
the Law School. 

With the passing years, Mr. Sumner gained 
that great physical strength and vigor for which 
he was remarkable through life. 

On leaving the Law School, he entered the 
office of Rand and Fiske. Mr. Rand was a pro- 
found lawyer and a voracious reader of law 
books. The Hon. G. "W. Warren, a fellow- 
student in that office, speaks of Mr. Sumner as 
diligently improving the rare opportunities there 
afforded him of perfecting his legal knowledge, 
and in particular of becoming acquainted with 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 43 

the latest English law publications, which Mr. 
Rand regularly procured from abroad. 

Judge Story was now a frequent visitor at the 
office, and there he and Mr. Rand discussed the 
contents of these publications and other legal 
questions. 

A mind so earnest and receptive as Sumner's 
of course drank in with avidity the opinions 
of these masters in the law ; his special object 
being at this time to acquire a knowledge of the 
practice of the law, which was, as we have seen, 
much less attractive to him than the study of 
principles. 

His ambition was still to be a jurist. In his 
e;ulogy on Judge Story, delivered some twelve 
years after this, he reveals his own aspirations. 
He says, " The function of a lawyer or judge — 
both practising law — is unlike that of a jurist, 
who, whether judge or lawyer, examines every 
principle in the light of science, and, while doing 
justice, seeks to widen and confirm the means of 
justice hereafter. . . . 

" Such a character does not live for the present 
only, whether in time or place. Ascending above 
its temptations, yielding neither to the love of 



44 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

gain nor to the seductions of ephemeral praise, 
he perseveres in those serene labors which help 
to build the mighty dome of justice, beneath 
which all men are to seek shelter and peace." 

With these views, Mr. Sumner studied as a 
philosopher rather than as a lawyer, and looked 
on the law not so much as it is, but as it should 
be. The common law, though in its spirit favor- 
ing personal freedom, originated in a compara- 
tively rude period, and was based not so much 
on the principles of right and justice as on con- 
venience and expediency ; and its rules are often 
arbitrary. 

Mr. Sumner, in his philosophical spirit, seeking 
for the foundation of rules and statutes in jus- 
tice, would almost certainly have failed to attain 
the highest distinction in the technical practice 
of the profession. Such men as he have a grand 
and beneficent work to do, which is more and 
more inspiring the higher class of students of 
the law, namely, to bring statutes and rules into 
closer harmony with the principles of right, and 
to infuse into the whole practice a higher and 
nobler spirit. 

Although Mr. Sumner was, a few years after 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 45 

this, summoned from his chosen path of serene 
speculation to the public strife of politics, yet he 
carried with him his lofty ideal of justice, and, as 
a statesman, rather than as a politician, gave 
the weight of his great and well-furnished mind 
to bring the national statutes and practice, both 
in our domestic and foreign relations, up to the 
standard of eternal right. This was his test of 
all laws and all measures. 

About this time he spent a winter in Washing- 
ton, little dreaming of the scenes through which 
he was there to pass, or the mighty work he was 
to accomplish in the halls of legislation. His 
personal presence and fine address won friends 
and admirers for him, young as he was, among 
the lights of the bar. 

Much attention was shown him by the judges 
and practitioners in the Supreme Court. Even 
Chief Justice Marshall extended to him civili- 
ties very unusual for a man in his position to 
tender to a mere law student. He doubtless saw 
his future greatness through the veil of his youth. 

Before being admitted to the bar, Sumner be- 
came chief editor of the " American Jurist," and 
conducted it with singular ability for a period of 



46 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

three years, doing much of the writing himself; 
bringing forth in his reviews of law books the 
varied stores of learning he had been gathering 
during his early and late hours of research at 
Cambridge. 

He was only twenty -three years of age when, 
in 1834, he was admitted to the bar in Worcester, 
with the reputation of being the most learned 
young lawyer in the country. 

He now opened an office in Boston, and set sail 
on the sea of life with a favoring breeze, and 
with a strong hand on the helm. 

Not long after this he became reporter of the 
United States Circuit Court, and published three 
volumes of reports, the decisions being those of 
Judge Story, and known as " Sumner's Reports." 

He had now formed an idea of going abroad, 
and, with this in view, held himself aloof from any 
engagements that would interfere with his pur- 
pose. 

During three years he filled the place of Judge 
Story at the Law School, hearing recitations (for 
lectures had not yet been introduced in the Law 
School), and also performed, for a time, the duties 
of Professor Greenleaf, in his absence. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 47 

All this time he was unremitting in his labors, 
making constitutional law and the law of nations 
a specialty. 

Soon after his service in the Law School, he was 
invited to a professorship at Harvard ; and on his 
declining to accept it, the offer was repeated, with 
the additional inducement of a chair in the law 
faculty. 

But much as Mr. Sumner appreciated the honor 
and usefulness of the position, he shrank from 
confining himself to those regular duties of a pro- 
fessorship which would interfere with the course 
of study and travel he had laid out for himself 

A lawyer, who was a student of Sumner's at 
this time, speaks of him as an admirable teacher, 
kind and fascinating in his manner, and possessed 
of a natural dignity, which had in it no trace of 
affectation. His ample store of learning, his rare 
power of communication, and his genial spirit 
won the respect and affection of the students. 
There was observable at the same time a measure 
of vanity, which, in his case, seemed to heighten 
one's estimate of his character, because it revealed 
that simplicity and truthfulness which could not 
conceal the pardonable weakness. In his subse- 



48 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

quent life we shall have frequent occasion to see 
the real greatness of the man in that, while so 
desirous of the good opinion of others, he could 
sacrifice the dearest friendships and the most 
enticing social position, and incur odium and con- 
tempt, for the sake of his convictions ; so over- 
powering was his regard for truth and justice. 

We cannot doubt but the stand which he felt 
compelled to take, at different times in after years, 
against the wishes and expectations of his friends, 
and against his own seeming good, cost his sensi- 
tive spirit many a pang of agony ; for he was not 
the cold, calculating, overbearing man that some 
have taken him to be. He loved to stand high 
in public esteem, to be caressed and honored ; 
but he loved more to be true to conscience and 
to God. 

Those who knew him in his youth and early 
manhood, who saw him in his most familiar hours, 
when his true character appeared without any 
temptation to disguise, assure us that he was • 
singularly simple hearted and guileless. And as 
he was in his youth, so he was, in all his subse- 
quent career. In this view we can hardly call 
his love of approbation an infirmity. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 49 

There are those who affect to disregard what 
others think of them, and glory in their inde- 
pendence of public opinion. But this, so far from 
being a virtue, or even an infirmity, is a grievous 
defect, and may become a vice. It is a sign of 
nobleness to desire the good opinion of the good ; 
and he who really disregards it has a mean and 
despicable character. When, as in the case of 
Lord Bacon, vanity becomes an idol, demanding 
the incense which should be offered to honor and 
justice, it deserves only reprobation and con- 
tempt. But when a man is doing right, and de- 
sires that other men should know and appreciate 
his efforts, and honor him for them, it is, to say 
the least, pardonable, especially when his work, 
and not himself alone, is kept prominent. 
4 



50 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER V. 

Visit to Europe. — Letter of Judge Story. — Ind- 
dent in Westminster Hall. — Testimony of Eng- 
lish Judges. — Baron Parke's Appreciation of 
Mr. Sumner^s Learning. — In Paris. — In Ger- 
many. — In Italy. 

Forty years ago foreign travel for the pur- 
poses of enjoyment and study was the lot of a 
favored few, and not, as now, an event in the 
life of almost every literary and professional man. 

In the fall of 1837, Mr. Sumner, then twenty- 
six years old, carried out his long-cherished plan 
of visiting Europe. 

His previous studies had formed a fitting prep- 
aration for foreign travel. He was well read in 
the literature, the history, and the political insti- 
tutions of England and the countries on the con- 
tinent. In matters of art he had formed a taste, 
and knew what were the masterpieces and where 
they were to be found. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 51 

Full of scholarly enthusiasm, he longed to visit 
the world-renowned universities of Europe, to see 
and converse with its great men, — its scholars, its 
jurists, its statesmen, to examine its libraries 
and art treasures, and to inform himself more 
thoroughly as to the peculiar features of its civili- 
zation. The reputation for scholarship which he 
carried with him, his gentlemanly bearing, his un- 
assuming modesty, his rare conversational powers, 
and the valuable letters he took from Judge Story 
and other gentlemen of European fame, gave him 
at once such access to the highest circles of so- 
ciety as is rarely enjoyed by so young a man in a 
foreign land. 

The following is an extract from one of Judge 
Story's letters addressed to a gentleman in Lon- 
don, dated November 3, 1837: — 

" Mr. Sumner is a practising lawyer at the 
Boston bar, of very high reputation for his years, 
and already giving the promise of the most emi- 
nent distinction in his profession ; his literary and 
judicial attainments are truly extraordinary. 

" His private character, also, is of the best kind 
for purity and propriety ; but to accomplish him- 
self more thoroughly in the great objects of his 



52 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

profession — not merely to practise, but to ex- 
tend the boundaries in the science of law, — I am 
anxious that he should possess the means of visit- 
ing the courts of Westminster Hall under favor- 
able auspices ; and I shall esteem it a personal 
favor if you can give him any facilities in this 
particular." 

Mr. Sumner first visited England, where he 
spent nearly a year, improving every moment in 
study, in careful observation of men and things, 
in attendance upon the debates of Parliament, the 
courts, and scientific associations ; finding elegant 
and most congenial relaxation in the circles of 
the great and titled, where he was ever wel- 
come. 

More than once he was invited to sit with the 
judges in Westminster Hall. At one time, dur- 
ing the progress of a trial, a point arose where 
there seemed to be no precedent. The lord 
chief justice, turning to Sumner, said, " Can you 
inform me whether there are any American de- 
cisions upon the point in question? " " No, your 
lordship," was the reply ; " but this point has been 
decided in your lordship's own court in such a 
case," giving him the citation. This remarkable 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 53 

readiness gave him ^clat throughout the kingdom. 
The above is related by a former classmate, now 
a gentleman of standing in this city. 

The letters which so close an observer wrote 
to his friends at home must have been full of 
interest. That they were of this character ap- 
pears from the following letter written by Judge 
Story to Mr. Sumner, August 11, 1838 : — 

" I have received all your letters, and have de- 
voured them with unspeakable delight. All the 
family have heard them read aloud, and all join 
in their expressions of pleasure. You are now 
exactly where I should wish you to be — among 
the educated, the literary, the noble, and, though 
last, riot least, the learned of England, of good 
Old England, our mother-land, God bless her ! " 

Mr. Sumner spent several months in Paris, 
where, as in England, he was industriously em- 
ployed in study and in converse with men emi- 
nent in literature and law. It was here that he 
met our distinguished countryman, Mr. Wheaton, 
with whom he had much conversation upon inter- 
national law, and to whom he suggested the plan 
of the great work on that subject afterwards writ- 
ten by that eminent jurist. 



54 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

It was there that he prepared an essay upon a 
subject then much discussed in foreign circles, 
namely, the north-eastern boundary of the United 
States, which was then in dispute between this 
country and Great Britain. The paper was, like 
all Mr. Sumner's eiforts, exhaustive and satis- 
factory, and attracted much attention at home 
and abroad. 

In Germany, and in particular at Heidelberg, 
he spent some time, and formed the acquaintance 
of eminent jurists and scholars, such as Savigny, 
Humboldt, and Eitter. 

His visit to Italy was to him one of peculiar 
delight. It is said that here he used to spend 
aU the day in the libraries and galleries of al-t, and 
nearly all the night in study, perfecting himself 
in the rich literature which had attracted Milton 
before him, a young and enthusiastic student like 
himself. One can easily imagine the pleasure 
which such classic scenes, where the ancient and 
the modern combine to make Italy, and especially 
Rome, so conspicuous in the annals of the world, 
in poetry, history, law, government, and art, must 
have awakened in Mr. Sumner's mind. He had 
aU the tastes and instincts of a scholar, and in 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 55 

the serene pursuits of literature and law he was 
here, in his own purpose, laying the foundation 
of a career devoted to the quiet enlargement of 
human knowledge and human happiness. 

Little did he then imagine that this cultivation 
of literature and art was to furnish but the bright 
gilding of a sterner life, engaged in heroic bat- 
tling with the greatest wrong of the age, as the 
foremost champion of the poor and oppressed. 

But so it was appointed, that Liberty, outraged 
in millions of slaves, was preparing for herself a 
leader, like Moses, " learned in all the wisdom " 
of the age, who should compel respect and con- 
sideration for a cause then intensely unpopular. 

The reputation which Mr. Sumner left behind 
him in England appears from the following inci- 
dent, referred to in Loring's " Hundred Boston 
Orators " : — 

On an insurance question before the Court of 
Exchequer, one of the counsel having cited an 
American case. Baron Parke, one of the oldest of 
the English judges, asked him from what book he 
quoted. " Sumner's Reports," he replied. " Is 
that," asked Baron Rolfe, '' the Mr. Sumner who 
was once in England?" Being answered in the 



66 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

afl&rmative, Baron Parke replied, " We shall not 
consider it entitled to less attention because re- 
ported by a gentleman whom we aU knew and 
respected." 

The year after his return from England, the 
" London Quarterly Keview," alluding to his visit, 
said, " He presents in his own person a decisive 
proof that an American gentleman, without of- 
ficial rank or wide- spread reputation, by dint 
of courtesj^, candor, an entire absence of preten- 
sion, an appreciating spirit, and a cultivated mind, 
may be received on a perfect footing of equality 
in the best circles, social, political, and intellec- 
tual ; which, be it observed, are hopelessly inac- 
cessible to the itinerant note-taker, who never 
gets beyond the outskirts of the show-houses." 

In the year 1840, Mr. Sumner returned home. 
As might be expected from his antecedents and 
his rare personal accomplishments, he was a wel- 
come guest in the most refined circles. The 
literary notables of Boston and vicinity were 
proud of his acquaintance and friendship. 

His foreign studies, especially in literature and 
art, had rendered the practice of the law still less 
attractive to him than before j and he was now 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 57 

chiefly known as an elegant scholar, and a dev- 
otee of the law in its literature and principles. 
His edition of Yesey's Reports, in twenty vol- 
umes, published from 1844 to 1846, show the bent 
of his mind and the affluence of his learning. 



58 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNEB. 



CHAPTER YI. 

State of the Country. — Slave- Trade. — Missouri 
Compromise. — Change in Southern Sentimeni. 
— Opposition at the North. — Change at the 
North. — Anti-Slavery Feeling. 

Before entering upon the public life of Mr. 
Sumner, it will be proper to consider the state of 
the country, as regards the institution of slavery, 
previous to that period ; for to the overthrow of 
that system his public life was mainly devoted. 
Where was the slavery question when he took it 
to his great heart ? 

Three years before his birth, the foreign slave- 
trade had ended. As it was still clandestinely 
carried on, the importation of slaves into the 
United States was, twelve years after, declared 
to be piracy, and made punishable with death. 
But the domestic slave-trade — that is, between 
the slave states — was still carried on, and with 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 59 

increasing vigor. It was attended with many 
horrors. Many free negroes fell a prey to kid- 
nappers, and were reduced to slavery. No less 
than fifteen thousand slaves were annually im- 
ported from the more northern of the slave states 
into the distant South. Virginia, especially, be- 
came the " negro-raising state for other states." 

After the war of 1812, "the demand for slave 
labor greatly increased, and the price of slaves 
was much advanced." The conscience of the 
South, which, in spite of slavery, had been, to 
no small extent, on the side of freedom, began 
rapidly to harden. As slavery became more prof- 
itable, it was viewed with less abhorrence, and 
its removal, which had been talked of even at the 
South as a most desirable event, at some future 
day, was now indefinitely postponed. Ere long 
slavery was declared to be a blessing to the ne- 
gro race. It was a " patriarchal," it was a " mis- 
sionary " institution. By these cheats practised 
upon conscience, the South became more and 
more wedded to slavery. The great curse of 
our nation was gaining new strength every day. 

When young Sumner was nine years old, an 
important event occurred, which afterwards, 



60 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNEK. 

when the lad had grown to be a man, and was a 
senator at Washington, became the occasion of 
calling forth his indignant eloquence. We refer 
to the Missouri Compromise, as it was called,, 
which was eflfected in 1820. This Compromise 
was the result of a mighty struggle between 
the free North and the slaveholding South. The 
Territory of Missouri had applied for admission as 
a state. The North wished to exclude slavery, 
the South to allow it. The contest was waged 
long and fiercely. It ended in a compromise, by 
which something was granted to freedom, but 
much more was gained by slavery. Missouri came 
in as a slave state, and slavery was forever pro- 
hibited north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes 
north latitude ; but this did not express the whole 
result. The Compromise was a real triumph for 
the South. It was sitnply a politic measure on 
their part for effecting a new extension of 
slavery. When another extension was desired, a 
new compromise could be concocted, or the old 
one annulled — which was actually done in 1850. 
" The Missouri struggle, which so aroused and 
called into action the vital forces of freedom and 
slavery, demonstrated the startling fact that the 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 61 

race of Southern statesmen who believed slavery 
to be a temporary evil, to be abolished at some 
future day, and in some unforeseen way, had 
passed away." Even Jefferson, who had pictured 
the evils of slavery in the darkest colors, and who 
" had once prepared a plan for the prohibition of 
slavery in all the territory from the Lakes to the 
Gulf, became alarmed, and shrunk appalled be- 
fore the fury of the strife, declaring that it fell 
upon his ear ' like the fire-bell at midnight.' " * 
So with Madison and Monroe. 

On the other hand, the people of the entire 
North, without respect to party, were aroused by 
this new attitude of the slave power. They 
were alarmed by the further extension of a sys- 
tem which they had fondly hoped would gradu- 
ally disappear. The future assumed a more 
gloomy aspect. 

" The legislature of Pennsylvania unanimous- 
ly opposed the existence of slavery in Mis- 
souri. Their resolutions declared ' that they 
are persuaded that to open the fertile region 
of the West to a servile race would tend to in- 
crease their number beyond all past example, 

* Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, by Henry Wilson. 



62 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

would open a new and steady market for the law- 
less venders of human flesh, and render all 
schemes for obliterating this foul blot upon the 
American character useless and unavailing.' . . . 
And they invoked the several states, ' by the duty 
they owe to the Deity, by the veneration which 
they entertain for the memories of the founders of 
the republic, and by a tender regard for poster- 
ity, to protest against its adoption, to refuse to 
covenant with crime, and to limit the range of an 
evil that already hangs in awful boding over so 
large a portion of the Union.' " 

These remonstrances against the organization 
of new slave states, and the extension of the 
curse of slavery, were sincere and earnest ; 
but when, after a struggle, victory fell to the 
South, the moral eifect was disastrous. The free 
sentiment of the North, thus baffled and humili- 
ated, began to show signs of weakness and dis- 
couragement. "Freedom became timid, hesi- 
tating, yielding; slavery became bolder, more 
aggressive, and more dominating. Freedom re- 
treated from one lost position to another ; slavery 
advanced from conquest to conquest. Several 
years of unremitted despotism of the slave power 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 63 

followed the consummation of the Missouri Com- 
promise. The dark spirit of slavery swayed the 
policy of the republic. Southern legislatures re- 
pealed the more humane acts of their slave codes, 
... and enacted statutes still more inhuman." 
But the spirit of freedom and humanity was stiU 
alive and growing in many hearts. Amidst gen- 
eral defection there was a precious remnant. 
There were men and women who learned their 
duty at a higher source than shifting public opin- 
ion, who listened to the " still small voice " of 
God, the Father of all. Their hearts were sad- 
dened — overwhelmed by the condition of the 
country. The cries of millions of slaves were to 
them an irresistible appeal for help. They pon- 
dered the question of duty, they prayed for light 
and strength, and then they went fearlessly for- 
ward in open and direct resistance to slavery. 
To human sight theirs was an unequal, almost 
profitless task. They were a handful of weak, ob- 
scure individuals, against a power which seemed 
well nigh omnipotent. But they were inspired 
and sustained by a serene faith in the ultimate 
triumph of truth. 

Among the pioneers of direct anti-slavery ef- 



64 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

fort, Benjamin Lundy, a native of New Jersey, 
of Quaker parentage, deserves the foremost place. 
He was a true philanthropist — tender-hearted, 
self-sacrificing, fearless, and yet prudent. " His 
heart was troubled at the sad condition of the 
slave. He enjoyed, he said, no peace of mind, 
and came to the conclusion that he must not only 
feel, but act, for the sufi"ering bondmen. Call- 
ing a few friends together at his house, he un- 
bosomed his feelings. An anti-slavery organ- 
ization was formed, called 'the Union Humane 
Society.' " 

This was in 1815, when Charles Sumner was a 
boy of four years. Six years later, in 1821, 
Lundy commenced, in Ohio, a monthly paper. The 
Genius of Universal Emancipation. In 1824 he 
transferred his paper to Baltimore. In 1828, on 
a visit to the Eastern States, he accomplished per- 
haps the greatest work of his life ; he formed the 
acquaintance, in Boston, of a young man of twen- 
ty-three, and won him at once to his views. The 
young man was William Lloyd Garrison. 

Charles Sumner was then in his second college 
year, seventeen years of age. 

When Lundy returned to Baltimore, he did not 



- LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 65 

forget young Garrison. Evidently the acquaint- 
ance had deeply impressed his mind. He came 
back to Boston in search of his friend. But Gar- 
rison had left the city, and was editing a paper in 
Vermont. Thither Lundy pursued him. Mr. Gar- 
rison, afterwards writing of this visit, said, " He 
had taken his staff in hand, and come all the way 
to the Green Mountains. He came to lay it on 
my conscience and my soul that I should join him 
in this work of seeking the abolition of slavery." 
Lundy prevailed. The next year they joined 
hands in Baltimore in the warfare against slavery. 
Mr. Garrison outstripped his partner — not in de- 
votion to the cause of emancipation, but in the 
fiery energy with which he assailed slavery. " In 
his first issue, he insisted on immediate and un- 
conditional emancipation as the right of the slave 
and the duty of the master, and disclaimed all 
temporizing, all make-shifts, all compromises, con- 
demning colonization, and everything else that in- 
volved or implied affiliation or sympathy with 
slaveholders." The Democratic slave-trade he 
denounced as " Democratic piracy." He branded 
as pirates the men — calling them by name — who 
carried on this traffic between Baltimore and New 
5 



66 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Orleans. The result was a fine, and imprisonment 
for forty-nine days. Released by the generosity 
of a friend, who paid the fine and costs, Mr. Gar- 
rison returned to Boston, to resume his weapons 
against slavery. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 67 



CHAPTER ,VII. 

" TJie Liberator " established by Mr. Garrison. — 
Its Boldness. — Excitement at the South. — 
Demand on the Mayor of Boston. 

While Mr. Sumner was engaged in his quiet 
studies, the year after his graduation from 
college, Mr. Garrison, six years his senior, com- 
menced the publication of The Liberator, in Bos- 
ton. The first number appeared in January, 
1831. 

The history of this newspaper teaches us 
" not to despise the day of small things." No 
beginning could be more humble. No funds, not 
a single subscriber, the partner, Mr. Knapp, who 
was the printer, as poor as the editor, " a dingy 
room of sixteen feet square, at once his sanctum, 
workshop, and home." What could be more un- 
promising or insignificant? But behind all this 
poverty and meanness was an ardent, indomi- 



68 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

table soul, conscious of a great mission, resolved 
to be heard. 

We have seen Mr. Garrison's spirit, truth-loving 
and fearless, in Baltimore. From prison he came 
to Boston to deal heavier blows against the great- 
est wrong of the age. The establishment of The 
Liberator was the inauguration of a new era in the 
anti-slavery cause. It was the era of calling 
things by their right names. Listen to the intro- 
ductory announcement: 

" During my recent tour for the purpose of 
exciting the minds of the people by a series of 
discourses on the subject of slavery, every place 
that I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact 
that a greater revolution in public sentiment was 
to be effected in the free states — and particu- 
larly in New England — than at the South. I 
found contempt more bitter, opposition more 
active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more 
stubborn, and apathy more frozen than among 
slaveholders themselves. Of course there were 
individual exceptions to the contrary. This state 
of things affected but did not dishearten me. 
I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the 
standard of emancipation in the eyes of the 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 69 

nation, within sight of Bunker Hill, and in the 
birthplace of liberty. That standard, is now un- 
furled ; and long may it float, unhurt by the 
spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate 
foe ; ^ea, till every chain be broken, and every 
boiidman set free. Let Southern oppressors 
tremble ; let their abettors tremble ; let all the 
enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble. 
■ " I am aware that many object to the severity 
of my language ; but is there not cause for 
severity ? I will be as harsh as truth, and as 
uncompromising as justice. On this subject I 
do not wish to think, or speak, or write with 
moderation. No ! No ! Tell a man whose house 
is on fire to give a moderate alarm ; tell him to 
moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the 
ravisher ; tell the mother to gradually extricate 
her babe from the fire into which it has fallen ; 
but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like 
the present. I am in earnest ; I will not equivo- 
cate ; Iivill not excuse ; I will not retreat an inch. 
And I WILL BE HEARD ! The apathy of the people 
is enough to make every statue leap from its ped- 
estal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead. 
" It is pretended that I am retarding the cause 



70 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

of emancipation by the coarseness of my invective, 
and the precipitancy of my measures. Tlie charge 
is Ziot true. On this question, my influence, hum- 
ble as it is, is felt at this moment to a considera- 
ble extent ; and it shall be felt in coming years 
— not perniciously, but beneficially — not as a 
curse, but as a blessing ; and posterity will 

BEAR WITNESS THAT I WAS RIGHT. I dcsire to 

thank God that He enables me to disregard the 
fear of man, which bringeth a snare, and to speak 
truth in its simplicity and power ; and I here 
close with this dedication : — 

' Oppression ! I have seen thee, face to face, 

Arid met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow ; 

But thy soul-withering glance I fear not now — 
For dread to prouder feelings doth give place 
Of deep abhorrence ! Scorning the disgrace 

Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow 

I also kneel — but with far other vow 
Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base; 

I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins. 
Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand, 

Thy brutalizing sway — till Afric's chains 
Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land, 
Trampling Oppression and his iron rod. 
Such is the vow I take — so help me God ! ' " 

When were braver words ever spoken — to 
be followed up by corresponding words and 
acts? 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 71 

When accused of using hard language, he re- 
plied : " I admit the charge. I have not been 
able to find a soft word to describe villany, or 
to identify the perpetrator of it. The man who 
makes a chattel of his brother — what is he ? 
The man who keeps back the hire of his laborers 
by fraud — what is he ? They who prohibit the 
circulation of the Bible — what are they ? They 
who compel three millions of men and women 
to herd together, like brute beasts — what are 
they ? They who sell mothers by the pound, and 
children in lots to suit purchasers — what are 
they ? I care not what terms are applied to 
them, provided they dt) apply. If they are not 
thieves, if they are not tyrants, if they are not 
men- stealers, I should like to know what is their 
true character, and by what names they may be 
called. It is as mild an epithet to say that a 
thief is a thief, as it is to say that a spade is a 
spade." 

Mr. Garrison had said, "I will be heard;" 
'^ Let Southern oppressors tremble." He was 
heard, and that speedily. The sound of his 
trumpet, issuing from that dingy attic, reached 
even Southern ears. There was alarm through- 



72 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

out Slavedom. Southern fears at once compre- 
hended the full measure of this new foe. While 
as yet quite unnoticed at the North, he was 
famous at the South. Southern ears, accustomed 
to alarms, were quicker to discern coming danger. 
There was something in these clear, ringing 
tones that told of " a Daniel come to judgment." 
There was a spirit in the man which they felt 
could not be intimidated or blinded. According- 
ly, measures were taken to avert the threatened 
peril. 

" Before the close of the first year, the Vigi- 
lance Association of Columbia, S. C, ' composed 
of gentlemen of the first respectability,' ofifered 
a reward of fifteen hundred dollars for the appre- 
hension and conviction of any white person 
detected in circulating in that state ' the newspa- 
per called The Liberator.' " 

The corporation of Georgetown, D. C, passed 
an ordinance rendering it penal for any free per- 
son of color to take from the post-ofiice the 
paper, published at Boston, called The Liberator, 
the punishment for each ofifence to be twenty 
dollars fine, or thirty days imprisonment. In 
case the offender was not able to pay the fine, or 



^ LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 73 

the fees for imprisonment, he was to be sold into 
slavery for four months. The grand jury of 
Raleigh, N. C, at the instigation of the attorney 
general, made an indictment against the editor and 
publisher of The Liberator for its circulation in 
that county. The legislature of Georgia passed 
an act oiFering a reward of five thousand dollars 
for the arrest, prosecution, and trial to conviction, 
under the laws of the state, of the editor or 
publisher of a certain paper called The Liberator, 
published in the town of Boston, and State of 
Massachusetts. 

Truly compliments were showered upon our 
poor editor ! 

A certain Southern magistrate thought to beard 
the Northern Hon in his very den. He request- 
ed the Hon. Harrison Gray Otis, " the wealthy and 
aristocratic Mayor of Boston," to siqw^^ ^^^ 
Liberator. The mayor had probably never 
heard of, certainly never read, the paltry aboli- 
tion sheet. But, as a good and faithful peace- 
maker, he set about the task demanded of 
him. In due time he reported that his offi- 
cers " had ferreted out the paper and its editor, 
whose office was an obscure hole, his only visible 



74 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

auxiliary a negro boy, its supporters a few 
insignijicant persons of all colors," &c., &c. ; and 
he assured the complainant that there was no 
possible cause for alarm ! The South knew 
better, and kept up a standing premium on his 
head. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 75 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Fears of Slaveholders. — Slave Conspiracy at 
Charleston. — Nat Turner^ s Insurrection. — His 
Execution. — Abolitionists in the Virginia Legis- 
lature. — Pro-Slavery at the North. — Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery Society. — Riots in New York 
and elsewhere. — Mr. Garrison Mobbed in Bos- 
ton. — Wendell Phillips. — Mobs. — Elijah P. 
Lovejoy. — A human Ear. — Rifiing the Mails. 
— Right of Petition. — John Quincy Adams. 

The South was disturbed not only by North- 
ern fanatics ; within in her own border, the spirit 
of liberty, which dwells -in every human heart, 
an inextinguishable spark from heaven, not sel- 
dom roused her bondmen to recover their stolen 
rights. As far back as 1812, John Randolph, 
of Virginia, in opposing the proposed invasion 
of Canada, lest it might expose the Southern 
coast to British troops, and stir up a servile in- 
surrection, said, " While talking of Canada, we 



76 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

have too much reason to shudder for our own 
safety at home. I speak from facts, when I say- 
that the night bell never tolls for fire in Rich- 
mond, that the frightened mother does not hug 
her infant more closely to her bosom, not know- 
ing what may have happened." 

In Charleston, S. C, years after, an extensive 
conspiracy was formed for murdering the whites, 
and only the fortunate betrayal of the plot, 
almost at the last moment, by a female slave to 
her mistress, to whom and her family she was 
much attached, prevented its execution. The 
inhabitants of that city trembled when they 
learned how very near to them had come a terri- 
ble tragedy, 

A slaveholder said to the writer, many years 
since, " We are dwelling on the sides of a vol- 
cano, which may burst upon us at any moment." 

In 1831 occurred the Southampton insurrec- 
tion in Virginia. It was headed by Nat Turner, 
a religious fanatic, who had been possessed from 
childhood with the idea that he was a prophet 
of the Lord, charged, like Moses, with the mighty 
work of delivering his people from bondage. 
His austerity of life and manners, and the magic 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 77 

power he exercised over his associates, in- 
fluenced not a few of them to believe that he 
was indeed divinely inspired. In his statement 
before his execution, he said, " On the 12th day 
of May, 1828, 1 heard a loud noise in the heavens ; 
and the Spirit instantly appeared to me, and 
said, ' The serpent is loosened, and Christ has 
laid down the yoke he bore for the sins of men, 
and I should take it up and fight against the 
serpent, for the time is fast approaching when 
the first shall be last and the last shall be 
first, and that by signs in the heaven that He 
would make known to me when I should com- 
mence the great work, and until the first sign 
should appear, I should conceal it from the 
knowledge of men.' " 

The eclipse of February, 1831, he regarded 
as the token that the seal was removed from his 
lips, and that he was to call his forces together, 
slay the whites around them, and so give liberty 
to the enslaved. This was to take place on the 
4th of July ; but he fell sick in view of the awful 
task laid upon him, and the day passed by. But 
" the sign " appeared again, and on the 21st of 
August he and some fifty associates, mounted, 



78 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

and armed with guns, swords, axes, and clubs, 
went from house to house, and beginning with 
the owner of Nat Turner, massacred some sixty- 
whites. They were, however, soon jfired upon. 
As the result of the insurrection, one hundred 
negroes were either shot or captured. 

The whole state was thrown into alarm, which 
ran like wildfire through all the slave states. 

The next session of the legislature of Virginia 
was occupied with speeches, and plans, and argu- 
ments, called forth by this shocking event. Gov- 
ernor Floyd asserted that the plans for treason, 
insurrection, and murder had been designed 
and matured by unrestrained and designing 
fanatics in the neighboring states. He also 
denounced the negro preachers as instigators of 
revolt, and expressed his conviction that the 
safety of the pubHc required that they should 
be silenced, and the free people of color banished 
from the state. 

Petitions now began to pour into the legisla- 
ture. Some of them were from slaveholders, 
praying for the removal of the free negroes ; and 
others from the Quakers, asking for the emanci- 
pation of the slaves. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 79 

The discussions which followed woke up a 
spirit little looked for, and developed the fact 
that there were many anti-slavery slaveholders 
in the body. One member asserted that " the 
free negro population was a nuisance," but 
added, " There is another and a greater nuisance 
— slavery itself." He called the system " the 
greatest curse that God, in his wrath, had ever 
inflicted on a people." He asserted that men 
were forced to lock their doors at night and 
to open them in the morning to let their servants 
in to light the fires, with a pistol in their hand, 
and said, " Under such circumstances, life is a 
burden, and it were better to seek a home in 
some distant realm, and leave the graves of our 
fathers, than endure so precarious a condition." 

Another member caUed slavery " the greatest 
curse ever inflicted upon the state," while yet 
another, using still stronger language, spoke of 
"its irresistible tendency to undermine and 
destroy everything like virtue and morality 
in the community," and declared that the pur- 
pose of the master was to see that the igno- 
rance of his slaves shall be as profound as 
possible ; and he vowed to do henceforth all in 



80 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

his power to restore to this oppressed people, 
their God-given rights. Another member called 
slavery " the bitterest drop from the chalice of 
the destroying angel." 

It might seem that Virginia, at least, was on 
the eve of an act of emancipation. But the 
anti-slavery sentiment, which was so strong in 
Western Virginia, among the mountains, where 
freedom is wont to dwell, was overpowered by 
the eastern portion of the state, where lived 
the great slaveholders. The danger from which 
they had just escaped made these men only the 
more fanatical in their defence of slavery, and 
the more bitter in their hostility to those who 
sought its overthrow. New safeguards must be 
thrown around the " patriarchal " institution, 
new and more stringent laws enacted, a sharper 
watch maintained against abolition emissaries, 
and the national government made to take 
slavery more directly under its protection. 

The free North, united to the South by 
social, political, commercial, and ecclesiastical 
ties, departed, to a fearful extent, from her 
better traditions, and joined in the crusade 
against abolitionists. " Great is Diana of the 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 81 

Ephesians ! " Great and ever to be defended is 
American slavery ! 

From that time onward, the opposition to 
anti-slavery increased in intensity both at the 
North and South. For several years mob-law 
had the ascendency. Free speech was put 
under the ban. Slavery must not be mentioned 
in sermons and orations, except in terms of 
commendation or extenuation. The press was 
muzzled. Public prayers for those who were in 
bonds was treason against the government. 
These mandates of slavery were enforced with 
unrelenting- rigor. Abolitionists were the ob- 
jects of constant abuse, and often their lives 
were in peril. 

But, nothing daunted, these peaceable friends 
of human liberty resolved to proceed to more 
effective measures in the cause to which they 
had sacredly sworn themselves. In the winter 
of 1833, a convention assembled in Philadelphia 
for the formation of an American Anti- slavery 
Society. This meeting has been recently de- 
scribed in a very graphic manner by John G. 
Whittier, himself an active participator in the 
proceedings. Sixty-two delegates were in at- 
6 



82 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

tendance, among whom were Beriah Green, 
William Lloyd Garrison, Samuel J. May, Lewis 
Tappan, and John Rankin. 

The society was organized under circum- 
stances of peculiar solemnity. Their work com- 
pleted, the president, the Rev. Mr. Green, ad- 
dressed the members, as they were about to 
separate, in touching and prophetic words. 
" Brethren," he said, " it has been good to be 
here. In this hallowed atmosphere I have been 
revived and refreshed. . . . But we must now 
retire from these influences and breathe another 
atmosphere. The chill hoar-frost will be upon us. 
The storm and tempest will rise, and the waves of 
persecution will dash against our souls. Let us 
be prepared for the worst. Let us fasten our- 
selves to the throne of God as with hooks of 
steel. . . . Let us be assured that our only hope 
in grappling with the bony monster is in an Arm 
that is stronger than ours. Let us fix our .gaze 
on God, and walk in the light of his counte- 
nance. If our cause be just, — and we know it is, 
— his onmipotence is pledged to its triumph. 
Let this cause be entwined around the very 
fibres of our hearts. Let our hearts grow to it, 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 83 

SO that nothing but death can sunder the 
bond." 

Mr. Whittier adds, "He ceased, and then, 
amidst a silence broken only by the deep-drawn 
breath of emotion in the assembly, lifted up his 
voice in a prayer to Almighty God, full of fervor 
and feeling, imploring his blessing and sanctifica- 
tion upon the convention and its labors. And 
with the solemnity of this supplication in our 
hearts, we clasped hands in farewell, and went 
forth each man to his place of duty, not knowing 
the things that should befaU us, as individuals, 
but with a confidence, never shaken by abuse 
and persecution, in the certain trimnph of our 
cause." 

Thus was born into life the first national anti- 
slavery organization. 

The "storm and tempest" did rise. There 
had been pro- slavery mobs in New York city. 
The cry was raised in 1833, "Ten thousand dol- 
lars for Arthur Tappan." Valuable men were 
those abolitionists ! But in 1834 the " waves of 
persecution" dashed more furiously. An anti- 
slavery celebration on the 4th of July was 
broken up by ruflSans, crying, " Treason, treason ! 



84 LIFE OP CHAKLES SUMNER. 

Hurrah for the Union!" Alas that the United 
States were reduced to the humiliation of having 
such defenders ! The leading journals of the city 
praised the rioters, who, for several days, com- 
mitted their outrages unrebuked. At midnight, 
on the 9th, the dwelling of Lewis Tappan was 
broken open by a mob, his furniture carried into 
the street and consigned to the flames. The 
next day several churches had their doors and 
windows broken ; one was " badly shattered, and 
one nearly destroyed, as were a school-house for 
colored children, and many dwellings inhabited 
by negroes. None of the rioters were ever pun- 
ished." It was a reign of terror. In Philadelphia 
there was a three-days' riot, in which the colored 
people suffered terribly by assaults upon their 
persons and dwellings. 

New England was disgraced by similar scenes ; 
for the slave-fiend had poisoned the moral atmos- 
phere of the whole country. In Massachusetts, 
at Worcester, in 1835, an anti-slavery lecturer 
was assaulted in the midst of the meeting. Simi- 
lar disturbances occurred in many villages. At 
Boston, October 21, 1835, a large and most respec- 
table mob, composed in good part of merchants, 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 85 

assailed a meeting of the Female Anti-slavery 
Society, while its president was at prayer, and 
dispersed it.* Brave men were they ! Mr. 
Garrison, being discovered, " was seized, a rope 
put round him, his hat knocked off his head 
and cut in pieces, and his clothes torn from his 
body. Dragged through Wilson's Lane into State 
Street, he was rescued by the mayor, his posse, 
and several respectable citizens, and taken into 
the mayor's room in the Old State House. From 
this place he was conveyed in a carriage to Lever- 
ett Street Jail, to save him from the fury of the 
mob." In order to effect Mr. Garrison's admis- 
sion to the jail, the kind-hearted deputy-sheriff, 
Mr. Parkman, got out a warrant against him as " a 
disturber of the peace." Mr. Parkman attempted 
to get into the carriage with the criminal, but 
could not for the crowd. Hastening to his own 
carriage, he fortunately reached the jail just as Mr. 
Garrison arrived. The warrant was presented, 
the jail door was thrown quickly open, and Mr. 
Garrison was safe from the howling mob. There 
he remained for the night. As he was a 
prisoner for no crime, he could not be detained, 

* The Ameriran Conflict, by Horace Greeley. 



86 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

and the next day an order was issued for his 
appearance before the court, to secure his re- 
lease. But it was not considered safe that so 
much publicity should be given to the aifair ; and 
accordingly, as Mr. Garrison could not go to the 
court, the court came to him ! The judge Avent 
to the jail, and informed Mr. Garrison that he was 
free to go " as a blameless citizen." But before 
departing, he inscribed these words upon the 
walls of the prison : ^^ William Lloyd Garrison was 
put into this cell on Monday afternoon, October 
21, 1835, to save him from the violence of a re- 
spectable and influential mob, who sought to 
destroy him for preaching the abominable and 
dangerous doctrine that all men are created 
equal, and that all oppression is odious in the 
sight of God." 

Among the spectators of that riot of the 21st was 
a young, lawyer, of rare gifts, and of high promise 
— Wendell Phillips. Up to that day he had had no 
thought of linking himself with the abolitionists. 
His only ambition was eminence in his profession 
or as a statesman. That sight of savage brutality 
suddenly changed the whole purpose and current 
of his life. From that time he became a reader 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 87 

of The Liberator, and a co-laborer with its hound- 
ed editor, in the anti-slavery cause. 

The same year, in November, at Northfield, 
N. H., Rev. George Storrs, while in prayer, pre- 
liminary to an anti-slavery lecture, was dragged 
from his knees, on a warrant issued by a justice 
charging him with being " a common rioter and 
brawler." ^ 

In 1837, in Alton, Illinois, Elijah P. Lovejoy, a 
man of culture and much moral worth, an editor 
of an anti-slavery paper, was subjected to a series 
of annoyances and persecutions, resulting in the 
destruction of his press and type, and finally his 
murder by a mob. These are a few specimens 
of the pro-slavery spirit in the free states. 

At the South, abolitionism was the unpardon- 
able sin, to be visited with summary vengeance. 
A New Orleans paper declared that every anti- 
slavery emissary of the South would " be burned 
at the stake." Such was the voice from Georgia, 



* The year 1835 maybe called the year of mobs. Many had oc- 
curred the preceding year, but this was tlie culminating period. 
" A reign of terror prevailed throughout the free states. Churches 
and public halls were assaulted, life and limb were endangered, 
anti-slavery speakers were roughly handled, and often placed in 
circumstances of imminent peril." 



o» LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Mississippi, and everywhere else. In the United 
States Senate, in 1838, a member from South 
CaroHna said, " Let an abolitionist come within the 
borders of South Carolina, if we can catch we 
will try him, and, notwithstanding all the inter- 
ference of all the governments of the earth, includ- 
ing the federal government, we will hang him." 

So great was the hatred and dread of abolition- 
ists at the South, that the mails were searched, 
and rifled of anti-slavery documents; and the 
postmaster general, in a letter to the postmaster 
of Charleston, S. C, said, " I cannot sanction, and 
wiU not condemn, the step you have taken." 

The writer remembers being once at the house 
of a gentleman of high standing, whose name was 
then an abomination at the South, when a large 
letter arrived from South Carolina. It contained 
a dead and withered human ear and a bit of rope ! 
The letter read something like this : " Knowing 
that you are much interested in our negroes, I 
send you the ear of a slave, cut off for attempting 
to escape to the North. - The rope is a hint of 
what awaits you if we can get you in our poAver." 

Further, in order to effect its purpose, the slave 
power trampled on the sacred right of petition. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 89 

The existence of slavery and the slave-trade in 
the District of Columbia was especially offensive 
to the North. That horrid trafiSc was carried on 
in sight of the national Capitol, and under cir- 
cumstances of extreme cruelty. Slave-pens were 
there, filled with human merchandise, and gangs 
of slaves, handcuffed and chained, were a spec- 
tacle of constant occurrence. 

Liberty was outraged in the sight of the whole 
world. The United States were disgraced by 
such unspeakable hypocrisy — a free republic 
legalizing the buying and selling of human be- 
ings. It was not ashamed to expose its naked- 
ness. 

It was natural that such a state of things should 
provoke indignation in the free North. In the 
name of decency, as well as of humanity, let slavery 
cease to flaunt its flag at the common capital of 
the nation. Such was the growing feeling at the 
North. Numerous petitions were sent to Con- 
gress, in 1835, for the removal of these abomina- 
tions. But the right of petition was denied by 
Congress, and a rule was passed excluding anti- 
slavery petitions. 

In 1842, John Tyler being president, John 



90 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Quincy Adams, representative from Massachu- 
setts, who had, in previous years, manfully de- 
fended the right of petition, secured a great 
triumph over the slave power. The subject was 
discussed for nearly two weeks, amidst the most 
intense excitement. The boldness and persis- 
tency of Mr. Adams were intolerable. A resolu- 
tion censuring his conduct was introduced. But 
as it was a very serious matter, the pro-slavery 
members decided to take further thought before 
final action. A meeting for deliberation was held 
in the evening, and a chivalrous young member, 
Thomas Marshall, of Kentucky, was selected to 
bring forward resolutions. The wish was, to ex- 
pel the venerable ex-president ; but they feare J 
to take that step. It was decided to be content 
with something less. The next morning, after 
the reading of the journal, Mr. Marshall submitted, 
according to the programme, three resolutions, 
declaring that the act of Mr. Adams might be 
held to merit expulsion ; that the House deemed it 
an act of mercy and grace when they only in- 
flicted upon him the severest censure for conduct 
so unworthy of his past relations to the state and 
his present position, and that this they did for the 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 91 

maintenance of their purity and dignity ; and for 
the rest, they turned him over to his own conscience 
and the indignation of oil American citizens 1 The 
resolutions in which Mr. Marshall charged Mr. 
Adams with high treason were followed by an 
eloquent and forcible speech. But the " old man 
eloquent" was far more than a match for the 
brilliant young orator and all his associates. With 
irresistible power of argument and sarcasm, he 
vindicated the right of petition, charged the 
South with aiming at the subversion of the funda- 
mental rights of freemen, and assailed slavery 
itself as a tremendous evil. Southern members 
used every parliamentary artifice to stop him, but 
in vain. No one understood parliamentary usages 
and rights so well as he. He replied to his as- 
sailants with terrible severity. Referring to the 
charge of treason, he thanked God that it was 
not left to the " puny " mind of the gentleman 
from Kentucky to define that crime — the Con- 
stitution had done it. He said that if he were 
Mr. Marshall's father, he would " advise him to 
return to Kentucky, and take his place in some 
law school, and commence the study of that pro- 
fession he had disgraced." Mr. Adams " carried 



92 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

the war into Africa " with such vigor that he 
overwhelmed his opponents. They had begun 
the onset with the full purpose to humble him. 
For several days the contest raged. But the 
veteran statesman, conscious of his innocence, 
and resolved to maintain the right, fearlessly 
stood his ground, and compelled his enemies to 
surrender. They dared not carry out their plan. 
Their carefully concocted resolutions were laid on 
the table ! It was a grand triumph of liberty. 

At the next session, Mr. Adams, as chairman 
of a committee on rules for the government of the 
House, omitted in his report the twenty-first rule 
— the rule which excluded anti-slavery petitions. 
Weeks were spent in discussing the subject, and 
Mr. Adams was violently assailed. " Mr. Dillett, 
of Alabama, quoted these words from a speech of 
Mr. Adams's to the colored people of Pittsburg: 
' We know that the day of your redemption must 
come. The time and manner of its coming we 
know not. It may come in peace, or it may come 
in blood ; but whether in peace or in blood, let it 
come.' Mr. Adams said, with emphasis, ' I say 
now, let it come.' Mr. Dillett replied, ' Yes, the 
gentleman now says, Let it come, though it costs 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 93 

the blood of thousands of white men.' Mr. Adams 
quickly responded, ' Though it cost the blood of 
millions of white men, let it come ! ' " * 

The right of petition was not, however, now 
secured. At length, after ten years' struggle, Mr. 
Adams, in the second session of the twenty-eighth 
Congress, in 1844, effected the abolishment of the 
tyrannical " rule." 

During all this time the friends of freedom 
were gaining strength and influence. In 1840 
the Liberty party was organized, and in 1844, 
with James G. Birney as its candidate for presi- 
dent of the United States, it cast more than sixty 
thousand votes. It was a small beginning, but it 
led on to great results. 

* Wilson. 



94 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Annexation of Texas. — Mr. Sumner^ s First Public 
Appearance. — Fourth of July Oration on ''The 
True Grandeur of Nations.^' — Its Effect. — 
Scene at the Dinner. — Extracts from the Ora- 
tio7i. — Opinions of John A. Andrew and John 
Quincy Adams. 

The year 1845 found Mr. Sumner quietly en- 
gaged in the pursuits of literature and the prac- 
tice of his profession. Early in that year occurred 
an event which was destined to agitate the whole 
country — the annexation of Texas. That region 
was claimed by Mexico as a part of her territory, 
even after it had proclaimed independence as a 
republic, bearing on its flag a '' lone star." The 
people of Texas, large numbers of them colonists 
from the Southern States, and slaveholders, at 
length desired to be united with the United 
States — a project into which the South entered 
with all its heart. To receive it would be to risk 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 95 

a war with Mexico ; but its annexation was a fore- 
gone conclusion, provided its friends could secure 
the sanction of Congress. At the South it was 
not a subject of discussion, but of desperate de- 
termination. The area of slavery must be ex- 
tended, its power strengthened. Every possible 
influence was brought to bear upon the two great 
political parties to commit them to the measure. 
As was usual then, the slave power carried the 
day. Thenceforth it became more defiant and ex- 
acting, more unscrupulous and domineering. 

The North was beginning to be aroused, fear- 
ing whereunto all this would grow. But abolition- 
ism was an unpopular doctrine. 

As yet Mr. Sumner had taken no active part in 
the cause to which, not long after, he dedicated his 
life. But he had been doing a great deal of think- 
ing. And he was not without deep convictions, 
even then, upon the stirring questions of the day. 
The great principles of right, which so early took 
deep root in his nature, were already working out 
their legitimate results. We know that from the 
year 1834 he had been a reader of Mr. Garrison's 
Liberator — a course of tuition decidedly stimulat- 
ing to ardent and thoughtful minds. Horace 



96 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Mann, fifteen years his superior in age, also had 
no little influence in shaping young Sumner's 
course of thought and life. The two were always 
warm friends, of kindred opinions and sympathies. 

The friends of anti-slavery in the city were 
aware of Mr. Sumner's principles. They had lis- 
tened to his earnest, generous utterances in pri- 
vate, and knew that if an opportunity were 
given him for a fuller expression of his views, he 
would employ no uncertain words. It so hap- 
pened that two, at least, of the board of aldermen 
of the city of Boston at this time. Deacon S. G. 
Shipley and Dr. Ayer, were abolitionists. They 
were on the committee to procure an orator for 
the anniversary of the Fourth of July, under the 
direction of the city government. They thought 
of Charles Sumner, the pride of Boston, who was 
as yet known to the general public only as a most 
promising young lawyer, of extraordinary attain- 
ments, literary and legal, and to a select circle as a 
gentleman of refined tastes, elegant manners, and 
fascinating social qualities. 

But the committee knew him as more than this. 
Calling upon him, they obtained his consent — 
much to their delight. To a friend whom they 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 97 

met just after this, they said, " We have succeed- 
ed in getting Charles Sumner, a grand fellow, and 
a sturdy abolitionist." Had the board of alder- 
men known this, perhaps they would have had 
some misgivings. 

And now is to be revealed to the world what 
Mr. Sumner had been deeply pondering in his 
mind during the past quiet years. 

At last, full-armed in principles and purpose, he 
steps forth into public life. The city fathers are 
in their place of honor in the church ; the solid 
men, the aspiring young men, the children of the 
public schools, are there, the last, to sing the songs 
of freedom. The flag that floats proudly that day 
bears the motto, " Ense petit placidam sub libertate 
quietem " — r the glory of the sword. The assem- 
bly are sure of a rich treat from the learned and 
eloquent young lawyer. He announces his theme 
— " The True Grandeur of Nations." The occa- 
sion is one which, by the grace of long and hon- 
ored custom, is to call forth a patriotic eulogy of 
the heroes of '76. 

Mr. Sumner soon undeceived the expectant mul- 
titude — all but that committee. He had girded 
himself for a mighty onset upon war, and through 
7 



98 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

a long and elaborate discourse he exposed that 
system as cruel, wasteful, irrational, repugnant to 
Christianity. He seriously proposed that all na- 
tions, our own setting the example, should disband 
their armies, and agree to settl§ their mutual dis- 
putes by friendly arbitration. 

The audience sat respectfully through the de- 
livery, but the feelings with which many of them 
entered the church, and the feelings with which 
they went out, were about as wide asunder as 
possible. The wiseacres, the leaders of the ton, 
the political managers, shook their heads at the 
rashness of the orator. He had got altogether 
too far out of the beaten track. He had put the 
presumptuous question, ^' Who believes that the 
national honor would be promoted, by a war 
with Mexico ? " and had added, " A war with 
Mexico would be mean and cowardly ; " and 
again, towards the close, ^ad said, " And when 
the day shall come (may these eyes be gladdened 
by its beams !) that shall witness the peaceful 
emancipation of three million fellow-men, guilty 
of a skin not colored as our own, now, in the land 
of jubilant freedom, bound in gloomy bondage, — 
then will there be a victory by the side of which 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 99 

that of Bunker Hill will be as the farthing- candle 
held up to the sun." He had seemed to manifest 
a leaning towards the ranting abolitionists. He 
had virtually said to the great Whig party, of 
which he was a hopeful scion, You must set your- 
self against the extension of slavery, against the 
retention of Texas ; you must declare for emanci- 
pation, — which the great Whig party was not at 
all inclined to do, regarding even the suggestion 
as most disloyal to the party and unpatriotic to 
the country. And so, when the great men of the 
city met, after the oration, at the dinner table in 
Faneuil Hall, they gave vent to their displeasure. 
The Daily Advertiser of that time gives a brief 
account of the scene. One speaker said that he 
could not fully sustain the doctrines of the ora- 
tion. Wars were sometimes necessary. Robert 
C. Winthrop, then a Whig representative in Con- 
gress, having in mind the annexation of Texas, 
and a probable war with Mexico, proposed as a 
toast, " Our country — however bounded, still our 
country — to be defended at all hazards." John 
C. Park took occasion to vindicate the military in- 
stitutions of the country, against what he consid- 
ered the doctrines of the oration. Judge Rogers 



100 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

gave as a sentiment, " That high and honorable 
feeling which makes the citizen a soldier, and the 
soldier a citizen." Not a word in commendation 
of the young orator. He stood alone. But he 
does not appear to have been at all daunted. He 
calmly rose, and, in a spirit in harmony with his 
theme, said that he would not follow with a single 
word the apple of discord which he seemed to 
have thrown that day, but would call their atten- 
tion to that part of the performance in the church 
with regard to which there could be no difference 
of opinion, referring to the part taken by the chil- 
dren, and would speak of the public schools of 
the city. 

It may be remarked that Mr. Sumner does not 
seem to have taken a stand against war as a de- 
fence in case of actual aggression, but against it 
as an established method for the settlement of 
international difficulties. Who can refuse his 
assent to such sentiments as these, from the ora- 
tion? 

" Stripped of all delusive apology, . . . war 
falls from glory into barbarous guilt, taking its 
place among bloody transgressions, while its flam- 
ing honors are turned into shame. . . . Amidst 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. lOl 

the thunders of Sinai God declared, ' Thou shalt 
not kill ; ' and the voice of these thunders, with 
this commandment, is prolonged to our day in the 
echoes of Christian churches." Referring to the 
maxim, " Our country, right or wrong, ^^ and to 
another, "Our country, our whole country, and 
nothing but our country," he •said, " Cold and 
dreary, narrow and selfish would be this life, if 
nothing hut our country occupied the soul ; if the 
thoughts that wander through eternity, if the in- 
finite afiections of our nature, were restrained to 
that place where we find ourselves by the acci- 
dent of birth. ... In the faithful record of the 
future, recognizing the true grandeur of nations, 
the Muse of history, inspired by a loftier justice, 
and touched to finer sensibilities, will extend to 
universal man the sympathy now confined to 
country, and no war will be waged without arous- 
ing everlasting judgment." 

He boldly proposed that the enormous sums 
expended in preparation for war in the time of 
peace should be devoted to objects of beneficence 
— to schools, colleges, churches, hospitals, libra- 
ries, — and that our army should be, not soldiers, 
but the teachers of youth and the ministers of 



102 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

religion. "This is the cheap defence of nations. 
In such intrenchments, what Christian soul can be 
troubled with fear? Angels of the Lord will 
throw over the land an invisible but impenetrable 
panoply : — 

* Or, if Virtue feeble were. 
Heaven itself would stoop to her.' " 

And again : '' True greatness consists in imitat- 
ing, as nearly as possible to finite man, the perfec- 
tions of an Infinite Creator, — above all, in culti- 
vating those highest perfections, justice and love. 
. . . The true grandeur of humanity is in moral 
elevation, sustained, enlightened, and decorated 
by the intellect of man. The surest tokens of this 
grandeur are that Christian beneficence which 
diffuses the greatest happiness among all, and that 
passionless, godlike justice which controls the 
relations of the nation to other nations, and to all 
the people committed to its charge." 

If the general voice was adverse to the doc- 
trines of Mr. Sumner, John A. Andrew was not 
slow to write to his friend his hearty indorse- 
ment : " I cannot help expressing my gratitude 
that here, in our city of Boston, one has at last 
stepped forward to consecrate to celestial hopes 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 103 

the great day which Americans have, at least 
heretofore, held sacred only to memory." And 
from his home in Quincy, the venerable John 
Quincy Adams, some months later, wrote to Mr. 
Sumner these remarkable words : " Casting my 
eyes backward no farther than the Fourth of July 
of last year, when you set all the vipers of Alecto 
a-hissing by proclaiming the Christian law of uni- 
versal peace and love ; and then casting them for- 
ward, perhaps not much farther, but beyond my 
own allotted time, / see you have a mission to per- 
form. I look from Pisgah to the promised land ; 
you must enter wpon it" 

From England, Richard Cobden, the great Lib- 
eral leader, wrote to Mr. Sumner, with reference 
to that oration, " You have made the most noble 
contribution of any modern writer to the cause of 
peace." 

In a letter to the author, the poet Samuel 
Rogers wrote, "What can I say to you in re- 
turn for your admirable oration ? I can only say 
with what pleasure I have read it, and how truly 
every pulse of my heart beats in accordance with 
yours on the subject. . . . Again and again must 
I thank you." 



104 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER X. 

Meeting in Faneuil Hall. — Speech against tJie 
Admission of Texas as a Slave State. — Lyceum 
at Neiu Bedford. — Lecture hefore the Boston 
Lyceum. — Eulogy on Pickering, Story, Chan- 
ning, and Allston, hefore the Phi Beta Kappa 
Society, at Harvard College. ■ — Washington 
Allston. — " No Battle-Piece / " — True Province 
of Art. 

Mr. Sumner was now fairly before the public, 
and had given no doubtful indication of the drift 
of his future course. His lofty ideal was Right 
— Right, as applied to the improvement of man- 
kind. He had already tried War by this test, 
and found it wanting ; he was now to assail 
Slavery as radical injustice. He wanted Peace 
and Freedom for the whole world — nothing less. 
He would cry aloud and spare not, against all 
forms of oppression and cruelty. 

In doing so he had no desire for political 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 105 

oflSce, and several years were yet to elapse ere 
he should be forced into such a position. But he 
had openly committed himself to the stream of 
conflict, which was every day growing more 
troubled and tempestuous ', and he was not the 
man to desert the ship, or to haul down his flag. 
And so, four months after his disquieting ora- 
tion against war, we find him lifting up his voice 
in opposition to the admission of Texas as a slave 
state. The slave power had become alarmingly 
defiant. Having secured Texas as a Territory, it 
was resolved to have it fully equipped as a 
champion of slavery on the floor of Congress, 
and in the government of the nation. A meeting 
of all who were opposed to this movement was 
held in Faneuil Hall, November 4, presided 
over by Charles Francis Adams. There Charles 
Sumner stood beside William Lloyd Garrison and 
Wendell Phillips. Among the resolutions, which 
were drawn up by Mr. Sumner was the following : 
" Be it resolved, in the name of God, of Christ, 
and of humanity, that we, belonging to all politi- 
cal parties, and reserving all other reasons of 
objection, unite in protest against the admission 
of Texas into the Union as a slave state." 



106 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Mr. Sumner followed with a speech, in which 
he said, " Congress is asked to sanction the con- 
stitution of Texas, which not only supports 
slavery, but contains a clause prohibiting the 
legislature of the state from abolishing slavery. 
In doing this, it will give a fresh stamp of legis- 
lative approbation to an unrighteous system ; it 
will assume a new and active responsibility for 
this system ; it will again become a dealer in 
human flesh, and on a gigantic scale. At this 
moment, when the conscience of mankind is at 
last aroused to the enormity of holding a fellow- 
man in bondage, when, throughout the civilized 
world, a slave-dealer is a by-word and a reproach, 
we, as a nation, are about to become proprietors 
of a large population of slaves." 

In answer to the objection that Massachusetts 
might stand alone in her opposition, he said, — 
" But we cannot fail to accomplish great good. 
It is in obedience to a prevailing law of Provi- 
dence, that no act of self-sacrifice, of devotion 
to duty, of humanity can fail. It stands forever 
as a landmark, from which, at least, to make 
a new effort. . . . Massachusetts must con- 
tinue foremost in the cause of freedom ; nor 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 107 

can her children yield to deadly dalliance with 
slavery." 

It was a stormy night on which this meeting 
was held, and the slave power took occasion from 
that circumstance, the next day, to growl out its 
wrath against those who had dared to question 
its infallibility, through the Daily Times, a Demo- 
cratic paper of Boston. " The elements seemed 
determined not to sanction any such traitor-like 
movement, and interposed every obstacle to its 
success. It was proper that such a foul project 
should have foul weather as an accompaniment." 

A few weeks later, Mr. Sumner was invited to 
lecture before the Lyceum at New Bedford ; but 
he refused to go, as Mr. Phillips and George Wil- 
liam Curtis had done before this, for the reason 
that colored persons were not allowed to purchase 
tickets, and were only admitted, free of expense, 
provided they would sit in " the north gallery." 
In his letter to the committee, Mr. Sumner said, 
" One of the cardinal truths of religion and 
freedom is the equality and brotherhood of man. 
In the sight of God and of all just institutions, 
the white man can claim no precedence or exclu- 
sive privilege from his color. It is the accident 



108 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

of an accident that places a human soul beneath 
the dark shelter of an African countenance, 
rather than beneath our colder complexion. Nor 
can I conceive any application of the divine 
injunction, ' Do unto others as you would have 
them do unto you/ more pertinent than to the man 
who founds a discrimination between his fellow- 
men on difference of skin. It is well known that 
the prejudice of color, which is akin to the stern 
and selfish spirit that holds a fellow-man in 
slavery, is peculiar to our country. It does not 
exist in other civilized countries. In France, 
colored youths at college have gained the highest 
honors, and been welcomed as if they were white. 
At the law school there, I have sat with them 
on the same bench. . . . All this was Christian ; 
so it seemed to me." 

This rule was soon after rescinded. 

In February of the next year, Mr. Sumner 
lectured before the Boston Lyceum on the Em- 
ployment of Time — a paper replete with valua- 
ble suggestions. 

" The hours spent in listlessness or squandered 
in unprofitable dissipation, gathered into aggre- 
gates, are hours, days, weeks, months, years. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 109 

The daily sacrifice of a single hour during a 
year comeS; at its end, to thirty-six working days, 
allowing ten hours to the day — an amount of 
time, if devoted exclusively to one object, ample 
for the acquisition of important knowledge, and 
for the accomplishment of inconceivable good. 
Imagine a month dedicated, without interruption, 
to a single purpose, — to the study of a new lan- 
guage, an untried science, an unexplored field of 
history, a fresh department of philosophy, or to 
some new sphere of action, some labor of humani- 
ty, some godlike charity, — and what visions must 
not rise of untold accumulations of knowledge, 
of unnumbered deeds of goodness ! " 

Referring with praise to the valuable precepts 
of Franklin, in favor of industry and economy, he 
adds, — 

" It cannot fail to be regretted, that the lessons 
taught by Franklin are so little spiritual in their 
character — that they are so material, so mun- 
dane, so full of pounds, shillings, and pence. 
' The almighty dollar,' now ruling here with 
sovereign sway and masterdom, was placed on 
the throne by Poor Richard. When shall it be 
dethroned ? When shall the thoughts, the aspira- 



110 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

tions, the politics of the land be lifted from the 
mere greed of gain, with an appetite that grows 
by what it feeds on, into the serene region of 
inflexible justice and universal benevolence ? " 

Addressing the young, he said, — 

" The image of God is in the soul, and the 
young must take heed that it is not effaced by 
the neglect of any of, the trusts they have se- 
cured. They must bear in mind that there are 
debts other than to their profession or business, 
which, like gratitude, it will ever be their pleas- 
ure, ' still paying, still to owe,' which can be 
properly discharged only by the best employ- 
ment of all the faculties with which they are 
blessed, so that life shall be improved by culture 
and filled with works for the good of man." 

On the 6th of August, Mr. Sumner pronounced 
before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard 
College, a eulogy on four distinguished Ameri- 
cans, John Pickering, the scholar, Joseph Story, 
the jurist, Washington Allston, the artist, and 
William EUery Channing, the philanthropist. It 
was an elegant and eloquent tribute to their 
worth. But it is particularly interesting as show- 
ing how thoroughly Mr. Sumner's mind was 



LIFE OF CHABLES SUMNER. Ill 

possessed by the idea of justice, and how clearly 
it perceived the grand duty of men of culture to 
consecrate their acquisitions to the good of the 
race. These great men, of whom he was speak- 
ing, " lived for knowledge, justice, beauty, love. 
. . . They were all philanthropists, for the labors 
of all were directed to the welfare and happiness 
of man." 

In that part of the address which speaks of 
AUston, we notice how eagerly Mr. Sumner 
seized the opportunity to expatiate on the highest 
aim and duty of Art. Before a literary audience, 
he still presses the paramount claims of humanity. 
The assault on war, which, a year before, had 
exposed him to sharp and vipery criticism, he 
now renews in a selecter presence with equal 
earnestness : " AUston was a Christian artist ; 
and the beauty of expression lends uncommon 
charm to his colors. All that he did shows 
purity, sensibility, refinement, delicacy, feeling, 
rather than force. His genius was almost femi- 
nine. As he advanced in years, this was more 
remarked. His pictures became more and more 
instinct with those sentiments which form the 
true glory of art. Early in life he had a partiali- 



112 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

ty for pieces representing banditti; but this taste 
does not appear in his later works. And when 
asked if he would undertake to fill the vacant 
panels in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washing- 
ton, ... he is reported to have said, / 1 will 
paint only one subject, and choose my own. 
No hattle-piece ! ' 

" Admitting the calamitous necessity of war, 
it can never be with pleasure — it cannot be 
without sadness unspeakable — that we survey 
its fiendish encounter. The artist of purest aim, 
sensitive to these emotions, withdraws naturally 
from the field of blood, confessing that no scene 
of battle finds a place in the highest art, — that 
man, created in the image of God, can never be 
pictured degrading, profaning, violating that 
sacred image. . . . There are tragedies which 
History enters sorrowfully, tearfully, in her faith- 
ful record ; but this generous Muse, with too at- 
tractive colors, must not perpetuate the passions 
from which they sprang, or the griefs which they 
caused. Be it her duty to dwell with eulogy and 
pride on all that is magnanimous, lovely, benefi- 
cent ; let this be preserved by votive cartvas, and 
marble also. But No hattle-piece I . . . The time 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 113 

is at hand when religion, humanity, and taste will 
concur in rejecting any image of human strife. 
Lais and Phryne have fled. Bacchus and Silenus 
are driven reeling from the scene. Mars will 
soon follow, howling, as with that wound from the 
Grecian spear before Troy. ... In the mission of 
teaching to nations and to individuals wherein is 
true greatness. Art has a noble office. If not 
herald, she is at least handmaid of Truth. Her 
lessons may not train the intellect, but they can- 
not fail to touch the heart. Who can measure 
the influence from an image of beauty, affection, 
and truth ? The Christus Consolator of Scheffer, 
without a word, wins the soul." 

It is worthy of mention, that among the pic- 
tures with which, years after, Mr. Sumner adorned 
his house at Washington, no battle-scene had 
a place, but there was a St. Mark descending 
from the skies to rescue a slave in the slave- 
market. 

When Mr. Sumner came to speak of Chan- 
ning, he came again upon war and slavery. He 
well knew that many present would consider 
those subjects wholly out of place at such a 
time, and hence he said, with what seems like a 
8 



114 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER, 

kind of grim humor, " All will see that I cannot 
pass these on this occasion ; for not to speak of 
them would be to present a portrait in which the 
most distinctive features were wanting." With 
that graceful excuse he dealt some more lusty 
blows at " those two terrible scourges," including 
a reference to the annexation of Texas, a war 
with Mexico, and the extension of slavery. 

Towards the end of the oration, Mr. Sumner, 
having spoken of the subjects of his eulogy as all 
philanthropists, added, — 

" In their presence how truly do we feel the 
insignificance of office and wealth, which men 
so hotly pursue ! What is office ? and what 
is wealth? Expressions or representatives of 
what is present and fleeting only, investing the 
possessor with a brief and local regard. . . . 
They who live for wealth, and the things of this 
world, follow shadows, neglecting realities eternal 
on earth and in heaven. After the perturbations 
of life, all its accumulated possessions must be 
resigned, except those only which have been 
devoted to God and mankind. What we do for 
ourselves perishes with this mortal dust ; what we 
do for others lives coeval with the benefaction," 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 115 

A marked quality of Mr. Sumner's character 
was hopefulness as to the triumph of truth and 
justice. However dark the present aspect, or 
bitter the strife, he never doubted that success 
would come to the right. A short poem which he 
introduced into this oration well indicates this 
firm, serene faith in the good and the true : — 

" There's a fount about to stream, 
There's a light about to beam, 
There's a warmth about to glow, 
There's a flower about to blow, 
There's a midnight blackness changing 

Into gray : 
Men of thought and men of action, 

Clear the way ! 

Aid the dawning, tongue and pen ! 

Aid it, hopes of honest men ! 

Aid it, paper ! aid it, type ! 

Aid it, for the hour is ripe, 

And our earnest must not slacken~. 

Into play : 
Men of thought and men of action. 

Clear the way ! " 

Such was Mr. Sumner's message to the then con- 
servative Harvard and conservative Boston, and 
such his endeavor to kindle a generous enthusi- 
asm for humanity among the young scholars of 
the land. Those ringing words, " Clear the way," 
were as the sound of a trumpet. With what dis- 



116 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

may must they have fallen upon the ears of men 
who loved soft words of compromise, and dreaded 
above all things agitation ! Doubtless they in- 
spired some younger hearts with a noble ambi- 
tion to " clear the way " for liberty throughout 
the land. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 117 



CHAPTER XI. 

W7dg State Convention. — Dutij of the Whig 
Party. — Appeal to Daniel Webster. — Mr. 
Wintlirop. — Wliite Slavery. — Public ScJiools. 
— Prison Discipline. 

We have seen Mr. Sumner making a literary 
festival serve the great interests of humanity. 
Letters, with him, were not an end ; they were 
an elegant accomplishment and recreation, the 
ornament and grace of life, and helps to more 
complete and effective work in the great field 
of human improvement. And so he gracefully 
passes from the Academy to the Forum. 

About a month after this, September 23, 1846, 
his voice is heard at a Whig State Convention in 
Faneuil Hall. He was a member of the Whig 
party, and anxious to have it maintain its in- 
tegrity. His associations with it had been of 
the most friendly character. In his opinion, it 
had been the party of freedom and progress. 



118 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

He still believed that it might be kept true to 
its patriotic and liberal principles. 

But, in order to that, the friends of free- 
dom must bestir themselves. The time for neu- 
trality was past. The Whig party must demand 
the repeal of slavery under the constitution and 
laws of the national government. They must 
'^ choose men who will devote themselves ear- 
nestly, heartily to the work, — who will enter 
upon it with awakened conscience, and with 
that valiant faith, before which all obstacles dis- 
appear, — who will be ever loyal to truth, free- 
dom, right, humanity, — who will not look for 
rules of conduct down to earth, in the mire of 
expediency, but with heaven-directed counte- 
nance seek those great ' primal duties ' which 
' shine aloft like stars,' to illumine alike the path 
of individuals and of nations. They must be 
true to the principles of Massachusetts. They 
must not be Northern men with Southern prin- 
ciples, nor Northern men under Southern influ- 
ences. They must be courageous and willing on 
all occasions to stand alone, provided right be 
with them. . . . There are a few such now in 
Congress. Massachusetts has a venerable rep- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 119 

resentative, whose aged bosom still glows with 
inextinguishable fires, like the central heats of 
the monarch mountain of the Andes beneath its 
canopy of snow. To this cause he devotes the 
closing energies of a long and illustrious life. 
Would that all might join him ! " 

All which was like a bracing north wind. 
Would the Whig party turn towards it its already 
feverish face, and be quickened to a new life ? 
Alas for the fond dreamer ! He was piping to 
a party that would call him an enthusiast, and 
before long a fanatic. Its very tower of strength 
had already become a leaning tower, destined to 
an ignominious fall. 

But as yet there was hope. And Mr. Sumner 
pleaded with Daniel Webster to be true to free- 
dom. " There is," said he, " a senator of Mas- 
sachusetts we had hoped to welcome here to-day, 
whose position is of commanding influence. Let 
me address him with the respectful frankness 
of a constituent and friend. Already, sir, by 
various labors, you have acquired an honorable 
place in the history of our country. By the 
vigor, argumentation, and eloquence with which 
you upheld the Union, and that interpretation of 



120 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

the constitution which makes us a nation, you 
have justly earned the title of Defender of the 
Constitution. . . . Pardon me if I add that there 
are yet other duties claiming your care, whose 
performance will be the crown of a long life in the 
public service. Do not forget them. Dedicate, 
sir, the years happily in store for you, with all 
that grand experience which is yours, to grand 
endeavor in the name of human freedom, for the 
overthrow of that terrible evil which now afflicts 
our country. ... Do not shrink from the task. . . . 
Assume, then, these unperformed duties. The 
aged shall bear witness to you ; the young shall 
kindle with rapture, as they repeat the name of 
Webster ; the large company of the ransomed 
shall teach their children and their children's 
children, to the latest generation, to call you 
blessed ; you shall have yet another title, never 
to be forgotten on earth or in heaven, — Defender 
of Humanity, — by the side of which the earlier 
title will fade into insignificance, as the consti- 
tution, which is the work of mortal hands, 
dwindles by the side of man, created in the 
image of God." 

We cannot wonder that this eloquent and 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 121 

faithful appeal to Webster was '^ received with 
great applause." Would that its admonitions had 
been heeded by the great statesman to whom 
they were addressed.* 

They are remarkable words, as describing to 
the life his own course in after years as the suc- 
cessor of Webster, and the glorious reward of 
his faithful service for humanity, of which the 
earnest has already come. The blessings of 
" the ransomed," which he hoped might crown 
another's head, have fallen upon his own. The 
nation, regardless of party, delights to honor him 
as the Defender of Humaniiy. 

This speech, with its warning to the great 
senator, was followed, a month later, by a letter 
to another distinguished Massachusetts Whig, 

* This warnmg proved not to be unnecessary. For it is useless 
to deny that Dani«l Webster did falter in his duty in the treatment 
of the slavery question, and that he was guilty of a great error and 
wrong, when, in an hour of temptation, he suffered himself to be 
betrayed into that most unfortunate speech in the United States 
Senate, March 7, 1850, in which he advocated the infamous Fugi- 
tive Slave Bill. It was against all the better instincts of his heart 
and the real convictions of his judgment. In this he was false to 
himself. He had done grand service to his country. His previous 
speeches abound with noble sentiments, powerfully and eloquently 
expressed, and are well worth the study of every American. His 
life, by Rev. Joseph Banvard, D. D., is a very interesting and ia- 
stractive velumc for the youag. 



122 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

then a representative in Congress — Robert C. 
Winthrop. 

As a consequence of annexing Texas, war 
with Mexico had comO; and Mr. Winthrop had 
voted for the Mexican War Bill, and defended 
it with much ardor. As a brother Whig, as a 
constituent, as a friend, Mr. Sumner administers 
what he beheves to be a wholesome rebuke.* 
He wonders that a son of Massachusetts could 
have sanctioned an aggressive war upon Mexico, 
and in the interests of slavery. 

To the question. What shall be done ? Mr. Sum- 
ner is at no hesitation for an answer. Retreat, 
recall the troops, acknowledge our wrong to an 
unoffending neighbor. 

Such was the lofty Christian morality which 
Mr. Sumner brought to bear upon the subject. 
He saw no shame in doing right, in confessing 
and repairing a wrong. It was noble and Chris- 

* Mr. Winthrop is well known as a gentleman of eminent ability 
and culture, of great private worth, and of pure and patriotic pur- 
poses; but his political course, like that of other public men, is 
open to criticism. Mr. Sumner — and in this he was far from being 
alone — believed Mr. Winthrop to have made a sad mistake in his 
treatment of slavery, especially as connected with the Mexican 
war. But that gentleman lias lately borae generous testimony to 
Mr. Sumner's worth, and. has said that their differences of opinion 
related more to measures than to ends. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 123 

tian. " Aloft on the throne of God, and not below 
in the footsteps of a trampling multitude, are 
the sacred rules of right, which no majorities 
can displace or overturn." 

Mr. Sumner's bold opposition to the war for 
slavery awakened a desire, among those who 
sympathized with his views, that he would allow 
himself to be a candidate for representative 
against Mr. Winthrop. His name was proposed, 
but he would not consent to let it stand. He did 
not wish for office, and he would not " suffer the 
force of his denunciations of the war and of 
slavery to be weakened by the suspicion that he 
was influenced by selfish motives." He would 
not have it said that he used pious words as a 
cloak for ambition. This was in 1846. And for 
five years longer he fought with the wild beasts 
of war and slavery in a private capacity. If ever 
there was a man who was not a demagogue, Mr. 
Sumner deserves that honor. 

Mr. Sumner had put his hand to the plough, 
and would not look back. Being invited to lec- 
ture before the Boston Mercantile Library Asso- 
ciation, which he did early in 1847, he chose for his 
theme, " White Slavery in the Barbary States." 



124 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

So long as slavery existed in our country, he felt 
that its suppression ought to be the one great 
idea with every American. But " before a pro- 
miscuous audience, it was at that time a subject 
too delicate to be treated directly," and Mr. 
Sumner ingeniously discussed white slavery, 
which, of course, every white person, of what- 
ever party, or of whatever opinion about ne- 
groes, was ready to condemn. Thus would he 
catch his hearers " by guile." The transition 
was not difficult from white slavery to black 
slavery. 

Mr. Sumner cited instances of efforts to es- 
cape from Algerine captivity, as for instance, that 
of Cervantes, the illustrious author of Don 
Quixote, and also those of American citizens 
— for Americans were reduced to slavery, down 
to the year 1816. What hearer, with such cases 
before him, would not sympathize with these 
glowing words ? — " Endeavors for freedom are . 
animating; nor can any honest nature hear of 
them without a throb of sympathy. Dwelling 
on the painful narrative of unequal contest be- 
tween tyrannical power and the crushed captive, 
we resolutely enter the lists on the side of free- 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 125 

dom ; and beholding the contest waged by a few 
individuals, or, perhaps, by one alone, our sym- 
pathy is given to his weakness as well as to his 
cause. To him we send the unfaltering succor 
of good wishes. For him we invoke vigor of 
arm and fleetness of foot to escape. Human 
enactments are vain to restrain the warm tides of 
the heart." 

The lecture was repeated in many parts of 
Massachusetts, and was an important means of 
training the people, in a way not calculated to 
arouse their prejudices, for the struggle that was 
before the country. 

But Mr. Sumner's thoughts were not wholly 
given to slavery. He was a philanthropist in 
the broadest sense. Hence we find him giving 
much attention to the cause of Education, espe- 
cially in the public schools of Boston, whose 
improvement he earnestly favored. 

At this time there prevailed what was called 
the " double-headed system " — two masters over 
each school. Now, it has always been found diffi- 
cult, from ancient times to our own, to have " two 
Caesars in Rome." It was so in Boston. The 
masters often disagreed, and as each was the 



126 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

equal of the other, confusion and trouble were 
the result. 

Rev. Rollin H. Neale, D. D., a member of the 
school committee, was the first to propose and 
advocate a change of system. He would cut off 
one of the heads, leaving a single one to be 
" master of the situation." He also urged the em- 
ployment, to a large extent, of female teachers. 

Both these proposals were for a time received 
with much disapprobation, by a majority of the 
directors of the schools. The innovation was 
preposterous. But among the advocates of the 
change was Charles Sumner. His voice was 
ever on the side of improvement. Tradition and 
prescription had no charm for his active and en- 
lightened mind. 

Mr. Sumner was also much interested in Pau- 
perism and Prison Discipline. Upon the latter 
subject he wrote an able article for the Christian 
Examiner. 

To this, as to every benevolent cause in which 
he was engaged, he brought that strong sense of 
right, that earnest love of truth, which we have 
seen to characterize his political action. And 
thus it happened, that, as in the Whig party, so 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 127 

in the Boston Prison Discipline Society, he was 
regarded by many very much as a " thorn in the 
flesh," His idealism was troublesome. He was 
not content that the annual report of the secretary 
should be meekly received with an annual satisfac 
tion. He thought that the spirit of the secretary 
was narrow and illiberal, and he said so. It was 
wedded to a particular system, and would give 
no ear to arguments in favor of any other. This 
was offensive to his progressive and liberal mind. 
He wanted the society to be more active and 
more open to conviction, to be ready for informa- 
tion and advice from any quarter. 

It seems strange to us that so reasonable a de- 
mand should have provoked so much opposition, 
controversy, and ill-feeling for a series of years. 
But so it was. The secretary favored the Auburn 
or social system, Mr. Sumner the Philadelphia 
or separate system. Boston was proud of her 
method, and was not willing to learn from Phila- 
delphia. Mr. Sumner was a Bostonian, but he 
did not believe that Boston was all the world. 
He wanted fair play, and an open, generous 
policy. And so, parties were formed, there was 
private and public controversy, the newspapers 



128 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

took up the quarrel, and foreign countries became 
interested in the debate. 

Among those who sympathized with Mr. Sum- 
ner were Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Mr. Hillard, and 
Dr. Francis Wayland, president of Brown Uni- 
versity, and these were styled "intruders." 

The difficulty began early in 1845, and in 
June, 1847, at a public meeting of the society 
in Tremont Temple, a committee, of which Mr. 
Sumner was one, brought forward a report em- 
bodying his views. These were explained and 
defended in a speech, courteous but plain-dealing. 
The system which Mr. Sumner favored he thus 
briefly described : "1. Separation of the prisoners 
from each other ; 2. Labor in the cell ; 3. Exer- 
cise in the open air ; 4. Visits ; 5. Books ; 6. Moral 
and religious instruction. Its fundamental doc- 
trine, and only essential element, is separation of 
prisoners from each other, on which may be in- 
grafted solace of any kind needful to health of 
body or mind." 

Alluding to the practical working of the society, 
Mr, Sumner said, " Look at our grandiose organi- 
zation. We have a president, with forty vice- 
presidents, or, borrowing an illustration from 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 129 

Turkey, 'a pacha with forty tails.' Then we 
have a large body of foreign correspondents, 
whose names we print in capitals, — fancy men, 
as they have been called, because they are for 
show, I suppose, like our vice-presidents. Then 
there are scores of directors, and a board of mana- 
gers. Now, I know full well, that, of these, very 
few interest themselves so much in our society 
as to attend its sessions. At the meeting last 
year for the choice of officers, there were ten 
present. We ten chose the whole army of vice- 
presidents and all. And then, too, the secretary 
politely furnished us printed tickets bearing their 
names and his own. Certainly, sir, something 
should be done to mend this matter. We must 
cease to have so many officers, or they must par- 
ticipate actively in the duties of the society." 

Who does not sigh for such an inspector of 
some of our more modern " grandiose " organiza- 
tions ? Would he be deemed an " intruder " ? 

Such Mr. Sumner did not cease to be considered 
when he transferred his investigations from the 
Boston society to the nation. That sentiment 
of Right was destined to startle conservatives 
out of their propriety, and to be a terror to 
9 



130 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

evil doers. He was indeed a terrible "in- 
truder." 

It should be added, that doubtless the men 
who stood in the opposition to Mr. Sumner, in the 
above controversy, were as honest and honor- 
able as himself. They were good and true men. 
But, like many other good and true men, they 
were, it would appear, morbidly conservative. 
There was needed a new element, and Mr. Sum- 
ner's treatment of the case, though not for the 
present joyous but grievous, was calculated to 
work the peaceable fruits of less parade of names, 
and more liberality and energy. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 131 



CHAPTER XII. 

Address at Amherst College. — " Fame and Glory." 

— Young Men. — True Object of Life. — Whig 
Meeting at Boston. — Whig State Convention. — 
The Whig Party '^ found wanting." — Pa7iy of 
Freedom. — Enthusiastic Meeting at Worcester. 

— At Union College. — '' Law of Human Prog- 
ress." 

Mr. Sumner's heart and hands were now full 
of work. Less than two months after intruding 
upon the Prison Discipline Society, he responded 
to a call from the young men of Amherst College 
to address them at Commencement. What more 
could he desire ? The year before, he had spoken 
at Harvard no uncertain words ; now, to another 
company of young scholars, he would repeat the 
cry, " Clear the way." His theme was, Fame 
and Glory — a theme hackneyed enough, often 
written about by school-boys and sophomores; 
but how, und^ the master's touch, it glows with 
new brightness ' 



132 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

The times were stirring, great events were at 
hand, there was an open field for generous am- 
bition, and Mr. Sumner wished to tune the spirits 
of his auditors, the future hope of the country, to 
the demands of the times. 

Some words of his, written at a later period, 
well express his present feelings : " Especially 
do I invoke the young. They are the natural 
guardians of liberty. Thus has it been through- 
out all history ; and never before in history did 
liberty stand in greater need of their irresistible 
aid. It is the young who give spontaneous wel- 
come to Truth, when she first appears an unat- 
tended stranger. It is the young who open the 
soul with instinctive hospitality to the noble 
cause." 

Having this end in view, he showed that the 
love of fame, a divinely implanted principle, was 
peculiarly liable to perversion. He pointed out 
the dangers to be avoided, the true use and end 
of the desire for glory, how it was to be controlled 
by, and subordinated to, higher principles. 

" Whatever," he said, " may be temporary ap- 
plause, or the expression of public opinion, it may 
be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that no 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 133 

true and permanent fame can be found except in 
labors which promote the happiness of mankind. 
If these are by Christian means, with disinter- 
rested motives, and with the single aim of doing 
good, they become that rare and precious virtue 
whose fit image is the spotless lily of the field, 
brighter than Solomon in all his glory." 

Referring to several military heroes, he said, 
" There is little of true grandeur in any such 
career. None of the beatitudes showered upon 
them a blessed influence. They were not poor 
in spirit, or meek, or merciful, or pure in heart. 
They were not peacemakers. They did not 
hunger and thirst after justice. They did not 
suffer persecution for justice's sake." 

In honorable contrast to these men, and to all 
the fame of military achievements, he referred to 
John Howard, who said, ^^ Hearing the cry of the 
miserable, I devoted my time to their relief; " and 
to Clarkson, who, while yet in the university, his 
heart stirred by the horrors of the slave-trade, 
exclaimed, " It is time some person should see these 
calamities to their end ! " " Such are exemplars 
of true glory. Without rank, ofiice, or the sword, 
they accomplished immortal good. While on earth 



134 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

they labored for their fellow-men ; and now, sleep- 
ing in death, by example and works they con- 
tinue the same sacred office. To all, in every 
sphere or condition, they teach the universal 
lesson of magnanimous duty. From the heights 
of their virtue they call upon us to cast out the 
lust of power, of office, of wealth, of praise, of a 
fleeting popular favor, which ' a breath can make, 
as a breath has made,' — to subdue the constant, 
ever-present suggestions of self, in disregard 
of neighbors, near or remote, whose welfare 
should never be forgotten, — to check the mad- 
ness of party, which, so often, for the sake of 
success, renounces the very objects of success, — 
and, finally, to introduce into our lives those senti- 
ments of conscience and charity which animated 
them to such labors. 

'' Nor should these be holiday virtues, marshalled 
on great occasions only. They must become part 
of us, and of our existence, — present on every 
occasion, small or great, — in those daily ameni- 
ties which add so much to the charm of life, as 
also in those grander duties which require an en- 
nobling self-sacrifice. The former are as flowers, 
whose odor is pleasant, though fleeting; the 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 135 

latter are like the costly spikenard poured from 
the box of alabaster upon the head of the Lord. 
. . . Their [men's] worship in the future must be 
the true God, our Father, as he is in heaven, and 
in the beneficent labors of his children on earth. 
Then farewell to the siren song of a worldly 
ambition ! Farewell to the vain desire of mere 
literary success or oratorical display! Farewell 
to the distempered longing for office! '" 

A few weeks later, and we find Mr. Sumner in 
a Whig meeting at Boston, urging the adoption of 
resolutions against the annexation of any territory 
by conquest, and against the extension of slavery. 
They were laid on the table ! 

A fortnight after, a Whig state convention 
was held in Springfield (September 29). Mr. 
Webster was there, Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Palfrey, 
Mr. Charles F. Adams, Mr. Sumner, and other 
notables. It was the last time of Mr. Sumner's 
appearance at a Whig meeting. The strong cur- 
rent of the party was proved to be in the direc- 
tion of compromise. All real heart had gone out 
of it. It refused to place itself across the path 
of the slave power. It was in fact joining hands 
with it, and becoming partaker of a great crime. 
Its days were numbered. 



136 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

But Mr. Sumner was hopeful, and made one 
more appeal. In support of the resolution of Mr. 
Palfrey, " That the Whigs of Massachusetts will 
support no men for the office of President and 
Vice-President but such as are known by their 
acts or declared opinions to be opposed to the 
extension of slavery," Mr. Sumner said: "Be as- 
sured, sir, whatever the final determination of this 
convention, there are many here to-day who will 
never yield support to any candidate who is not 
known to be against the extension of slavery, 
even though he have freshly received the sacra- 
mental unction of a ' regular nomination.' We 
cannot say, with detestable morality, * our party, 
rigM or wrong.' The time has gone by when 
gentlemen can expect to introduce among us the 
discipline of the camp. Loyalty to principle is 
higher than loyalty to party. The first is a 
heavenly sentiment, from God, the other is a de- 
vice of this world. Far above any flickering light 
or battle-lantern of party is the everlasting sun 
of Truth, in whose beams are the duties of men." 

Having borne his testimony, but in vain, he felt 
himself free to act in any new direction which 
duty should point out. He that day ceased to 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 137 

be a Whig. And the " old line " Whigs gave him 
up as a disagreeable " intruder," an incorrigible, 
impracticable fanatic. 

The Whig party was proved to be unequal to 
the emergencies of the hour. A new step was 
necessary. There must be a party of freedom, 
which should represent the moral sentiments 
of the country, which should gather within its 
ranks all, of whatever previous political name, 
who would not bow the knee to the Baal of 
slavery. There must be a party to represent 
the fundamental ideas of justice and human 
equality declared in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. The time for such an organization 
had now fully come. Accordingly, about one 
month after the unsuccessful attempt at Spring- 
field to commit the Whig party to the cause of 
freedom, a mass convention was held in Worces- 
ter (June 28, 1848), to effect a union among men 
of all parties against the slave power and the 
extension of slavery. 

It was an enthusiastic gathering, in every re- 
spect most memorable. It was the dawn of a 
new day for America, and for the world. Five 
thousand people were assembled on the Common, 



138 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

for no hall could hold the multitude, brought 
there by a common and resolute purpose to re- 
sist the further encroachments of slavery. Many 
of the most prominent Whigs were there, ready 
to cut loose from the past, and take a fresh start 
in the interest of freedom and humanity. The 
words that were spoken that day were not the 
stale, stereotyped, guarded phrases learned in 
party schools, but the free, fresh, warm utter- 
ances of souls inspired by noble sentiments. It 
was as if a new gift of tongues had been vouch- 
safed. Men spoke freely, boldly, grandly, as 
reason and conscience prompted. Once more 
politics and morals joined hands! There was a 
feeling of responsibility to God. There was a new 
love for humanity. " All the speakers," it is said, 
" united in renouncing old party ties." None did 
this better than Charles Francis Adams, who con- 
cluded his remarks by saying, " Forgetting the 
things that are behind, I propose that we press 
forward to the high calling of our new occupa- 
tion ; and, fellow-citizens, whatever may be the 
fate of you or me, all I can now add is, to repeat 
the words of one with whom I take pride in re- 
membering that I have been connected : ' Sink or 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 139 

swim, live or die, survive or perish/ to go with 
the liberties of my country is my fixed determi- 
nation." 

Mr. Sumner said, " In the coming contest I 
wish it understood that I belong to the party of 
freedom — to that party which plants itself on 
the Declaration of Independence and the Consti- 
tution of the United States." 

In answer to the objection that by voting for 
a separate candidate, — rejecting Cass and Tay- 
lor, — the new party, as being now small, would 
throw away its votes, and its opposition would 
fail, Mr. Sumner said, '' Fail, sir ! No honest, 
earnest effort in a good cause can f^il. It may 
not be crowned with the applause of men ; 
it may not seem to touch the goal of immedi- 
ate worldly success. But it is not lost. It 
helps to strengthen the weak with new virtue, 
... to animate all with devotion to duty, which 
in the end conquers all. Fail I Did the mar- 
tyrs fail, when, with precious blood, they sowed 
the seed of the church ? Did the discomfited 
champions of freedom fail who have left those 
names in history that can never die ? . . . As- 
surances here to-day show that we need not 



140 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

postpone success. It seems already at hand. 
The heart of Ohio beats responsive to the heart 
of Massachusetts, and all the Free States are 
animated with the vigorous breath of free- 
dom. . . . From this demonstration to-day, 
and the acclaim wafted to us from the Free 
States, it is easy to see that the great cause 
of liberty, to which we now dedicate ourselves, 
will sweep the heart-strings of the people. It 
will smite all the chords with a might to draw 
forth emotions such as no political struggle ever 
awakened before. It will move the young, the 
middle-aged, and the old. It will find a voice 
in the social circle, and mingle with the flame 
of the domestic hearth. It will touch the souls 
of mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, until 
the sympathies of all swell in one irresistible 
chorus of indignation against the deep damnation 
of lending new sanction to the enslavement of 
our brother man." 

Thus was born the Free Soil party, from 
whose loins afterwards sprang the Republican 
party. 

Before saying more about this important move- 
ment, we will follow Mr. Sumner to another col- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 141 

lege anniversary — this time at Union College, 
Schenectady, N. Y. 

These literary festivals were times of seed- 
sowing. And it was a cheering indication of 
better, whole somer days, that the young men 
of the country were ready to listen to such 
a teacher as Mr. Sumner. The high-toned, 
Christian morality which he inculcated, and 
which he insisted should be applied to poli- 
tics, as everywhere else, was welcomed by young 
and ingenuous minds not yet blinded and hard- 
ened by the maxims of worldly expediency. 

Having spoken at Harvard and Amherst, now 
again in July, 1848, having just assisted in 
forming a new party of progress, he discourses 
at Union on the Law of Human Progress. " 1 
would, if I could," he said, " utter truth which, 
while approved by the old, should sink deep 
into the souls of the young, filling them with 
strength for all good works." Mr. Sumner had 
before him a grand ideal of truth and right, 
and also of humanity. He would teach the 
young not to be content with present attain- 
ments and the present condition of the world. 
There was a divine law of human progress run- 



142 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

ning through and shaping all history, and work- 
ing out a glorious future. " The earnest soul, 
enlightened by history, strengthened by philos- 
ophy, nursed to childish slumber by the simple 
prayer, * Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on 
earth as it is done in heaven,' confident in the 
final, though slow, fulfilment of the daily fulfil- 
ling promises of the future, looks forward to the 
continuance of this progress during unknown 
and infinite ages, as a law of our being, . . . 

" Christianity is the religion of progress. Here 
is a distinctive feature which we vainly seek in 
any heathen faith professed upon earth. Confu- 
cius, in his sublime morals, taught us not to do 
unto others what we would not have them do to 
us ; but the Chinese philosopher did not declare 
the ultimate triumph of this law. It was re- 
served for the Sermon on the Mount to reveal 
the vital truth, that all the highest commands 
of religion and duty, drawing in their train 
celestial peace, and marking the final goal of all 
progress among men, shall one day be obeyed. 
' For verily I say unto you,' says the Saviour, 
' till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle 
shall in no wise pass from the law till all be 
fulfilled.' " 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 143 

Tliis progress of humanity embraces people of 
every race, and demands for all the means of 
every kind of improvement. Bigotry, or con- 
servatism, opposes this movement ; but in vain. 
" Thus ever has Truth moved on — though op- 
posed and reviled, still mighty and triumphant. 
Rejected by the rich and powerful, by the favor- 
ites of fortune and place, she finds shelter with 
those who often have no. shelter for themselves. 
It is such as these that most freely welcome 
moral truth, with its new commandments. Not 
the dwellers in the glare of the world, but the 
humble and lowly, most clearly perceive this 
truth, — as watchers placed in the depths of a 
well observe the stars which are obscured to 
those who live in the effulgence of noon. Free 
from egotism and prejudice, whether of self- 
interest or of class, without cares and temp- 
tations, whether of wealth or power, dwelling in 
the mediocrity or obscurity of common life, they 
discern the new signal, and surrender unre- 
servedly to its guidance. The Saviour knew 
this. He did not call upon priest, or Levite, or 
Pharisee to follow him, but upon the humble 
fishermen by the Sea of Galilee." 



144 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER, 

Mr. Sumner warned his hearers against impa- 
tience and rashness. " Cultivate a just moder- 
ation. Learn to reconcile order with change, 
stability with progress. This is a wise con- 
servatism ; this is a wise reform. Rightly un- 
derstanding these terms, who would not be a 
conservative ? who would not be a reformer ? — 
a conservative of all that is good, a reformer of 
all that is evil, — a conservative of knowledge, 
a reformer of ignorance, — a conservative of 
truths and principles whose seat is in the bosom 
of God, a reformer of laws and institutions 
which are but the wicked or imperfect work of 
man, — a conservative of that divine order which 
is found only in movement, a reformer of those 
earthly wrongs and abuses which spring from a 
violation of the great law of human progress ? " 

Thus did Mr. Sumner seek to build up a new 
party on the highest grounds, and to enlist in its 
support the young men of the land. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. , 145 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Object of the Free Soil Party. — Free Soil Con- 
vention at Buffalo. — 3Iartin Van Buren and 
Charles Francis Adams. — Speech by Mr. Sum- 
ner. — Address on Peace. — Colored Children 
in Public Schools. — Mr. Sumner-^ s Argument be- 
fore the Supreme Court. — 3Ir. Clay's Compro- 
mise Pleasures. — Fugitive Slave Bill. — Its 
Effect in the Free States. — Electing of Protest 
in Faneuil Ecdl. — Terror of the Colored Peo- 
ple. — William and Elle^i Crafts. — Mr. Sum- 
ner^s Opinion of Slave- Huntei'S. 

The Free Soil party now entered fully upon its 
work. Its purpose was to prevent the further 
extension of slavery, and to secure its abolition 
wherever it existed within the national domain, 
as distinguished from State jurisdiction. It did 
not propose to touch slavery in the States. 

A large number of persons, who were distinc- 
tively known as Abolitionists, and who, to a great 
extent, took no part in political action against 
10 



14:6 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 

slavery, were seeking the overthrow of that sys- 
tem throughout the whole country. But the po- 
litical movement was more limited in its aim. It 
was, however, a necessary step in the great cause 
of emancipation. 

The Free Soil party aimed to do all that could 
then be done aside from mere moral means. It 
would forbid slavery in the District of Columbia 
and the Territories, and the formation of new 
Slave States ; would liberate the general govern- 
ment from any responsibility to maintain slavery 
in the States where it already existed ; and thus 
shut up slavery within its own special boundaries, 
to take care of itself as best it could. It would 
have the Free States free from any complicity with 
slavery. They should be " free indeed." 

To perfect the organization of such a party, a 
convention was held at Buffalo, August 9, 1848, 
at which Martin Van Buren, who had already 
once been president, was nominated as President 
of the United States, and Charles Francis Adams 
as Vice-President. 

At a public meeting held in Faneuil Hall, 
August 22, this nomination, with the platform, 
was ratified. The list of speakers and of other 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 147 

friends to the new cause shows that it had drawn 
to itself many of the choicest spirits of the North. 
In fact, the best portion of the two great parties 
which had hitherto carried sway, came over to 
the new organization, which alone represented 
true American principles. 

On this occasion Mr. Sumner was chosen pre- 
siding officer, and made an eloquent speech. He 
declared that not banks and tariffs, and such mere 
material interests, were now to give their tone to 
the policy of the country. '' Henceforward, pro- 
tection TO MAN will be the true American sys- 
tem. . . . The old and ill- compacted party organ- 
izations are broken, and from their ruins is now 
formed a new party, the Party of Freedom. There 
were good men who longed for this, and died 
without the sight. John Quincy Adams longed 
for it. William Ellery Channing longed for it. 
Their spirits hover over us, and urge us to perse- 
vere. Let us be true to the moral grandeur of 
our cause. Have faith in Truth, and in God, who 
giveth the victory." 

During the campaign which followed, Mr. 
Sumner spoke at many places in the State. A 
speech delivered in Faneuil Hall, October 31, 



148 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

1848, is said to have been one of " surpassing 
ability and eloquence," and to have been received 
with "■ tumultuous shouts " of applause. But it 
was not reported. 

In Mr. Sumner's view, war and slavery were 
kindred evils. Their fundamental idea was- force, 
-violence. Being invited by the American Peace 
Society to speak at their anniversary, in Boston, 
May 28, 1849, he did not regard it as an inter- 
ruption to his work in behalf of freedom. In an 
Address on the War System of the Common- 
wealth of Nations, he once more, as in 1845, 
urged " the abolition of the institution of war, and 
of the whole war system, as an established arbiter 
of justice in the commonwealth of nations. " 

Resuming his pen in behalf of freedom, he pre- 
pared an Address to the People of Massachusetts 

— which was afterwards adopted by the Free 
Soil convention at Worcester, September 12, 1849 

— in vindication of the new organization. It con- 
tains the germ of his great speech in Congress in 
1852, showing that the Freedom party is a na- 
tional party, as opposed to sectional. 

At this time, while Massachusetts was thus 
awaking to new opposition to slavery, she was 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 149 

herself holding her colored citizens in a position 
of inferiority. Colored children were not allowed 
to attend the public schools in company with the 
white. They had separate schools. The subject 
came before the Supreme Court of the State, De- 
cember 4, 1849, under an action brought by a col- 
ored child, only five years old, who, by her next 
friend, as the law term is, sued the City of Boston 
for damages on account of a refusal to receive her 
into one of the common schools. Mr. Sumner 
undertook her case, and argued in a most thorough 
manner the unconstitutionality of the discrimina- 
tion on account of race or color. He claimed for 
every person '' equality before the law " — a term 
now for the first time introduced from the French. 
He denounced the separation of children in the 
schools, as in the nature of caste, that odious sys- 
tem, which no Christian could sanction. He de- 
clared it to be injurious, also, to the whole system 
of common schools. '' The law," he said, " con- 
templates not only that all shall be taught, but 
that all shall be taught together. . . . All are to 
approach the same common fountain together ; 
nor can there be any exclusive source for indi- 
vidual or class. The school is the little world 



150 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

where the child is trained for the larger world of 
life. . . . And since, according to our institutions, 
all classes, without distinction of color, meet in 
the performance of civil duties, so should they 
all, without distinction of color, meet in the 
school, beginning there those relations ofequality 
which the constitution and laws promise to all. . . . 

'' Nothing is more clear than that the welfare of 
classes, as well as of individuals, is promoted by 
mutual acquaintance. Prejudice is the child of 
Ignorance. It is sure to prevail where people do 
not know each other. Society and intercourse 
are means established by Providence for human 
improvement. They remove antipathies, promote 
mutual adaptation and conciliation, and establish 
relations of reciprocal regard. Whoso sets up 
barriers to these, thwarts the ways of Providence, 
crosses the tendencies of human nature, and di- 
rectly interferes with the laws of God." 

Addressing himself directly to the judges, he 
said, " The Christian spirit I again invoke. Where 
this prevails, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, 
Greek nor barbarian, bond nor free, but all are 
alike. From this we derive new and solemn 
assurance of the equality of men, as an ordinance 
of God." 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 151 

Here we see one feature of the Civil Eights 
Bill, which Mr. Sumner so earnestly pressed 
Congress to pass, as an act of justice to the 
blacks, and of benefit to the whole country. 

The court, in the present case, did not see fit 
to annul the discrimination in the common 
schools.'^ But in 1855 the legislature threw the 
door open to all children alike. So we trust the 
national legislature will do for the whole country. 

The year 1850 is memorable for the series 
of compromises, originating with Henry Clay, 
of Kentucky, which were designed to allay and 
forever settle the controversy about slavery. 
Alas; the "conflict" was "irrepressible." 

It was now a period of extreme irritation be- 
tween the Free and the Slave States. The an- 
nexation of Texas, as a slave state, in 1845 ; the 
war with Mexico, begun in 1846 ; the acquisition, 
as the result of it, of the vast territory of New 
Mexico and California, which the South were 
laboring to throw open to slavery, — all this had 
seriously alarmed the North. On the other hand, 

* Chief Justice Shaw decided that the claim of equality before 
the law meant " only that the rights of all, as they are settled and 
regulated by law, are equally entitled to the paternal consideration 
and protection of the law for their maintenance and security." 



152 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

the growing opposition to slavery at the North, 
the determined spirit of the abolitionists, the rise 
of the Liberty party in 1840, of the Free Soil 
party in 1848, and the fear entertained at the 
South that, after all, New Mexico and California 
were likely to be non-slaveholding, had aroused 
the people of the Slave States to a fearful pitch 
of exasperation. Then came forward the great 
compromiser, with his panacea of peace — his 
last public act. It was discussed amid great ex- 
citement, in and out of Congress, from January 
to September, in which month California was ad- 
mitted as a Free State, New Mexico and Utah 
were organized as Territories with no provision 
for or against slavery, the slave-trade was pro- 
hibited in the District of Columbia, and a strin- 
gent Fugitive Slave Law was passed. 

" Now," said President Fillmore, " we have been 
rescued from the wide and boundless agitation 
that surrounded us, and have a firm, distinct, and 
legal ground to rest upon." 

But he was crying peace when thel-e was no 
peace. Specially obnoxious to the North was 
the Fugitive Slave Bill. It was a shameful stat- 
ute, not only as designed to rivet more firmly 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 153 

the shackles of the slave, and as carrying terror 
into every colored home in the Free States, but 
as turning the free North into a legalized hunt- 
ing-ground for fugitives, and as visiting with 
"bitter penalties of fine and imprisonment the 
faithful men and women who rendered to the 
fugitive that countenance, succor, and shelter 
which Christianity expressly requires ; " thus, 
" from beginning to end," setting " at nought the 
best principles of the constitution, and the very 
laws of God." 

The most odious features of this bill were the 
following: it ordained a " summary process " — 
a legal proceeding intended to protect human 
freedom, but which in this case was wickedly 
perverted to the very opposite. 

It violated the fundamental right of trial hy 
jury, which the constitution of the United States 
grants in suits at common law, where the value 
in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars — the 
liberty of a man being made of less account than 
the recovery of a horse. 

It provided that " in no trial or hearing under 
this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive 
he admitted in evidenced He might be a white 



154 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

man or a free negro, but he could bring forward 
no proof of the fact. The claimant with a bribe 
in his hand might enter into collusion with the 
commissioner, and between them the innocent 
victim might be reduced to slavery. 

It placed the liberty of the alleged fugitive at 
the mercy of one man, from whose verdict there 
was no appeal. 

The government offered a premium for kidnap- 
ping, for it allowed the commissioner twice as 
much in case he surrendered the alleged fugitive 
to the claimant, as he should receive if he re- 
leased him — ten dollars for declaring a man a 
slave, five dollars for declaring him a freeman ! 

It authorized the ministers of the law — the 
mockery of law — to " summon and call to their 
aid the bystanders, or j^osse comitatus of the 
proper county," and it '^ commanded " all good 
citizens to aid and assist in the prompt and 
efficient execution of the law, under the pen- 
alty of fine and imprisonment. 

In the last provision, it seemed as though the 
slave power was resolved to press to Northern 
lips the bitterest cup of abomination which it 
could possibly concoct. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 155 

No wonder it awakened a feeling of indigna- 
tion and horror, not only among the blacks, but 
among multitudes of the liberty-loving people of 
the Free States. Many, even, who were little 
concerned for the miseries of the colored people, 
revolted at the thought of being themselves 
'' commanded " by the slave power to act the part 
of slave-catcher — in fact, to become slaves. 

Meetings for protesting against the outrageous 
act were held in different places. One of the 
most note-worthy was held in Faneuil Hall, just 
one month after the passage of the bill, for the 
special purpose of taking measures for the pro- 
tection of the colored people of the city, and of 
fugitives from slavery. It was an enthusiastic 
gathering. In the opening prayer. Dr. Lowell 
said, '^ Thou who art no respecter of persons, 
who art love, and dwellest in love, look in mercy 
upon those of our brethren on whose behalf we 
are now assembled — fugitives from slavery." 

It was necessary that something should be 
done, for, immediately upon the passing of the 
bill, slave-hunting began all over the North, and 
was prosecuted with fearful activity. Spies were 
everywhere. Slave-hunters became familiar 



156 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

characters. In New York, one Sunday morning, 
a slaveholding clergyman, just arrived, was seen 
riding on the top of a stage, perched aloft for the 
purpose, perhaps, of discovering his victim. The 
first case under the act, September 28, was that 
of James Hamlet, who was seized in New York, 
and hurried off to a woman in Baltimore who 
laid claim to him. In many cases, the execution 
of the law was attended with circumstances of 
peculiar aggravation. Families which had long 
enjoyed peace at the free North were now in- 
vaded by the slave power, and either broken up, 
or forced to the most heart-rending separations. 
Large numbers fled to British soil. '' Within the 
first year of its [the bill's] existence, more per- 
sons, probably, were seized as fugitive slaves 
than during the preceding sixty years." 

The first fugitives whom the act sought to 
arrest in Boston were William and Ellen Crafts, 
in 1850. In tlieir case no attempt was made to 
conceal them. William was ascertained to be a 
man of pluck, who would make a stout resistance, 
and whom it might be dangerous to approach. 
There was at this time a Committee of Vigilance 
and Safety, composed of prominent abolitionists, 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 157 

to look after the interests of fugitives At one 
of their meetings, which were usually held in 
Stacy Hall, on Washington Street, Mr. Lewis 
Hayden, a well-known resident of Boston, him- 
self a fugitive, came in under great excitement. 
The case now pending was becoming more criti- 
cal. The question was, whether Crafts should 
be secretly sent to Canada, or whether he should 
be advised to remain and defy the " law." 

Mr. Hayden, at whose house William and Ellen 
Crafts were stopping, and who knew the spirit 
of the former, immediately on entering the hall, 
poured out the fullness of his heart, taking the 
ground that Crafts should not be sent away. In 
his earnestness, he had scarcely noticed who 
were present ; but suddenly pausing, and seeing 
what men he was addressing, — John C. Park, 
Theodore Parker, Francis Jackson, Ralph Waldo 
Emerson, Charles Sumner, Timothy Gilbert, 
George Thompson, and other members of the 
committee, or friends of the cause, — he instant- 
ly dropped into his seat. Mr. Sumner at once 
arose, and took up the case where Mr. Hayden 
had left it, urging, that as Crafts had given proof 
of his manhood, it would be wrong to hasten his 



158 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 

escape ; that it was his duty to remain, and make 
a stand against the infamous law. The kidnap- 
pers must be driven from Boston. 

The character of his remarks at this time may 
also be gathered from what he said in a public 
meeting in November : " From a humane, just, 
and religious people will spring a public opinion 
to keep perpetual guard over the liberties of all 
within our borders. Nay, more like the flaming 
sword of the cherubim at the gates of Paradise, 
turning on every side, it shall prevent any Slave- 
HuNTEE from ever setting foot in this Common- 
wealth. Elsewhere he may pursue his human 
prey, employ his congenial bloodhounds, and 
exult in his successful game ; but into Massachu- 
setts he must not come. Again, let me be under- 
stood. I counsel no violence. I would not touch 
his person. Not with whips and thongs would I 
scourge him from the land. The contempt, the 
indignation, the abhorrence of the community 
shall be our weapons of offence. Wherever he 
moves, he shall find no house to receive him, no 
table spread to nourish him, no welcome to cheer 
him. The dismal lot of the Koman exile shall be 
his. He shall be a wanderer, without roof, fire, 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 159 

or water. Men shall point at him on the streets 
and in the highways. 

' Sleep shall neither night nor day 
Hang upon his pent-house lid ; 
He shall live a man forbid ; 
Weary, scvennights nine times nine, 
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.' 

"Villages, towns, and cities shall refuse to 
receive the monster ; they shall vomit him forth, 
never again to disturb the repose of our com- 
munity." 

Thus would Mr. Sumner arrest the action of 
the " law " at the outset. 

William and Ellen Crafts were not apprehend- 
ed. Their would-be kidnappers retired without 
their victims. At length the fugitives were sent 
to England, where Crafts became a sort of com- 
mercial agent to the kingdom of Dahomey. He 
is now living in Georgia. 

At the public Free Soil meeting, to which refer- 
ence was just made, November 6, 1850, before 
the annual election, Mr. Sumner denounced the 
Fugitive Bill as " cruel, unchristian, and devilish." 
It was unconstitutional also, and ought not to be 
obeyed. 

After stating, in his speech, that he himself 



160 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

held the office of commissioner by appointment, 
the year before, of Judge Story, — an office whose 
duties he had seldom exercised, — yet, said he, 
" I cannot forget that I am a man, although I am 
a commissioner. . . . For myself, let me say, 
that I can imagine no office, no salary, no con- 
sideration, which I would not gladly forego, rather 
than become in any way the agent in enslaving 
my brother man. Where for me were comfort 
and solace after such a work? In dreams and in 
waking hours, in solitude and in the street, in 
the meditation of the closet and in the affairs of 
men, wherever I turned, there my victim would 
stare me in the face. From distant rice-fields 
and sugar-plantations of the South, his cries 
beneatli the vindictive lash, his moans at the 
thought of liberty, once his, now, alas ! ravished 
away, would pursue me, repeating the tale of his 
tearful doom, and sounding, forever sounding, in 
my ears, ' Thou art the man 1 ' " 

Speaking in more general terms, he said, " We 
have seen what Congress has done. And yet, 
in the face of these enormities of legislation, 
. . . we are told that the slavery question is set- 
tled. Yes, settled, — settled, — that is the word. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 161 

Nothing, sir, can be settled ivhich is not right. 
Nothing can be settled which is against freedom. 
Nothing can be settled which is contrary to 
the Divine law. God, nature, and all the holy 
sentiments of the heart repudiate any such seem- 
ing settlement." 

As an encouragement to fidelity in the cause 
of freedom, he said, *' To every laborer in a cause 
like this, there are satisfactions unknown to the 
common political partisan. . . . Whatever may 
be existing impediments, his is the cheering con- 
viction that every word spoken, every act per- 
formed, every vote cast for this cause, helps to 
swell those quickening influences by which truth, 
justice, and humanity will be established upon 
earth. He may not live to witness the blessed 
consummation, but it is none the less certain. 
Others may dwell on the past as secure. Under 
the laws of a beneficent God, the future also is 
secure, — on the single condition that we labor 
for its great objects." 

With reference to the election of suitable men 

to represent the cause in the State and the 

Nation, he said: '^ Admonished by the experience 

of timidity, irresolution, and weakness in oup 

11 



162 LIFE OF CHAKLES SUMNER. 

public men, amidst the temptations of ambition 
and power, the friends of freedom cannot lightly 
bestow their confidence. They can put trust only 
in men of tried character and inflexible will. 
Three things at least they must require ; the first 
is backbone; the second is backbone; and the 
third is backbone. . . . Wanting this, they all 
want that courage, constancy, firmness, which 
are essential to the support of principle. Let no 
such men be trusted." And then, referring to 
his own purpose, he added, " To vindicate free- 
dom and oppose slavery, so far as I may consti- 
tutionally, — with earnestness, and yet, I trust, 
without personal unkindness on my part, — is the 
object near my heart. ... Rejoicing in associ- 
ates from any quarter, I shall be found ever with 
that party which most truly represents the 
principles of freedom. . . . Whenever I forget 
them, whenever I become indifferent to them, 
whenever I cease to be constant in maintain- 
ing them, through good report and evil report, 
in any future combinations of party, then may 
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, may 
my right hand forget its cunning ! " 

Now that he has gone from us, his work com^ 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 163 

pleted, we can say of him, that he never forgot 
these principles, but to the very last, even with 
his latest breath, redeemed every pledge here 
made. 

This speech was received with great enthusi- 
asm by one class, but denounced by another as 
" treasonable." It awakened deep feeling through- 
out the country, so bold and determined was its 
stand against a congressional statute. It doubt- 
less had an important influence in the election 
which was about to take place for United States 
senator, to fill the place made vacant by the ap- 
pointment of Daniel Webster as secretary of 
state. 



164 LIFE OF CHABLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The " Coalition." — Nomination of Mr. Sumner 
for the United States Senate. — Scenes in the 
Legislature. — 3Ir. Bartlett's Proposition. — 
Lack of Envelopes. — Talking against Time. — 
Election of Mr. Sumner. — Letter of John G. 
Wliittier to 3Ir. Sumner. — The Apple- Woman. 
— Feeling among the WJiigs. — Treatment of 
Mr. Sumner. — Address to the Legislature. — 
Horace Mann. 

We have now reached a very important period. 
Hitherto Mr. Sumner has acted only as a private 
citizen ; he is now to taRe a public oflSce, and to 
become a public man, in a degree accorded to but 
few of this or any generation. The whole course 
of his life is henceforth to run in a channel far 
different from that marked out by himself Yet, 
in a deeper sense, it was not different. He was still 
to be Charles Sumner, the same foe to war and 
slavery, the same friend of peace and freedom, 
the same lover of truth and justice, only in a 
wider sphere. 



LIFE OP CHARI.es SUMNER. 165 

At this time there were three political parties 
in Massachusetts, the Whig, the Democratic, and 
the Free Soil. The two latter were neither of 
them strong enough to carry an election over the 
Whigs, but by a combination they hoped to secure 
their object. 

The Democrats wished to conquer the Whigs, 
the Free Soilers wished to promote the cause of 
freedom. Among the former, also, there were a 
considerable number who were willing that the 
slave power should be rebuked. Many such 
afterwards became valiant Republicans. 

It was accordingly agreed that most '•' of the 
state officers chosen by the legislature should be 
Democrats, and the United States senator a Free 
Soiler." This was the famous '' coalition." 

Henry Wilson, Free Soiler, was selected as can- 
didate for President of the Senate ; N. P. Banks, 
Democrat, for Speaker of the House ; George S. 
Boutwell, Democrat, for Governor ; and Charles 
Sumner, Free Soiler, for United States senator, 
all of whom were elected.* 

* It is worthy of remark, that this legislature of 1851 contained 
an unusual number of members who have since risen to positions 
of eminence in the commonwealth or in the national government. 
Three have been governors of the State, N. P. Banks, H. J. Gardi- 



166 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

To Mr. Sumner this was a wholly ur expected 
and undesired nomination. But he yielded to the 
importunities of the friends of freedom, who in- 
sisted that, for the sake of the cause, he ought to 
forget his personal preferences. 

The choice of United States senator proved to 
be a three months' race between Mr. Sumner and 
Mr. Winthrop. 

The Senate proceeded to ballot on January 22, 
1851, with the following result: Charles Sum- 
ner, 23 ; R. C. Winthrop, 14 ; Beach, 1. Mr. Sum- 
ner received, therefore, a majority of the votes 
at the first ballot, and the Senate did not vote 
again. In the House the first ballot stood thus : 
Sumner, 186; Winthrop, 167; sca'ttering, 28; 
blanks, 3. Whole number, 381 ; necessary to a 
choice, 191. There was no choice. 

The voting in the House was not continuous 
from day to day, as is the present rule, but was 
carried on amid several postponements, some- 
times for a fortnight at a time. 

ner, and William Claflin ; several have represented the State in Con- 
gress ; three have been speakers of the House in the State legislature ; 
one is the present state treasurer ; one has been mayor of Boston ; 
one has sat on the bench of the Supreme Court at Washington ; and 
one has held many important offices under the general government, 
being at present our minister to Spain. Others have held influential 
positions. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 167 

It was a period of intense excitement within 
and outside the General Court, enlivened now and 
then by amusing incidents. One member, living 
in the vicinity, but generally confined at home 
from sickness, was brought into the House when- 
ever voting was to be done, and then carried 
back. Every man was expected to " do his duty," 
even if he died in the attempt. 

And so it went on till March 12, when an ex- 
citing debate took place, in the course of which 
Caleb Cushing, of ancient and modern renown, 
being then a member from Newbury, said that 
" he would . cheerfully confront any personal ex- 
tremity, he would be content to relinquish for- 
ever all aspirations as a statesman or a man, he 
would think no personal sacrifice too great, if 
he might thereby avoid such a death- stab to the 
honor and welfare of the Commonwealth, and such 
a stain and disaster to the Union as the election 
to the Senate of the United States of a one-idea 
abolition agitator to represent the people of Mas- 
sachusetts." * 

* In generous contrast with the above, we gladly insert the fol- 
lowing later testimony from Mr. Cushing: " I think the speeches, 
discourses, and miscellaneous papers of Mr. Sumner eminently de- 
serve to be collected and published in a complete form. Whatever 



168 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

From this we infer that Mr. Gushing was not a 
part}'' to the coalition. 

The session had now reached the 24th of April 
without an election. Trial had been made of 
voting viva voce and by open ballot, without secur- 
ing for any one- the requisite majority. Some- 
body, it appeared, was casting two votes. Each 
side suspected the other of foul play. At length 
Sidney Bartlett, an eminent lawyer, of the Whig 
party, thinking that by another method their 
candidate might gain an advantage, moved, that 
" in the further balloting, the ballot be placed in 
an envelope ; and that, where two votes for one 
person are found in the same envelope, one shall 
be rejected ; and that, where two votes for differ- 
ent persons are cast, both shall be rejected ; the 
envelopes to be of a uniform character, furnished 
by the sergeant-at-arms." 

For once the shrewd lawyer committed a blun- 

diffcrence of opinion there may be in the country concerning the 
various political doctrines which, in his long senatorial career, lie 
has so earnestly and so steadily maintained, certain it is that his 
productions constitute an essential part of our public history, as 
well in foreign as in domestic relations ; and they are characterized 
by such qualities of supeiior intellectual power, cultivated elo- 
quence, and great and general accomplishment and statesmanship, 
as entitle them to a high and permanent place in the political litei*- 
ature of the United States." 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 169 

der. The Free Soil members were delighted at 
the motion, which was carried at once. 

But there were not envelopes enough in the 
State House for the unusual demand, and a 
messenger was hurried off to a stationer's for a 
supply. 

Meanwhile the Free Soilers were in an agony 
lest, because of the readiness with which the 
proposition had been received, a reconsideration 
might be called for, and one of their number set 
himself to the task of talking against time. It 
was an immense relief when the messenger ap- 
peared with his box of envelopes, which were to 
work such wonders for the Whig party. 

Immediately the twenty-sixth vote was taken, 
when, to the dismay of the author of the infallible 
panacea and his compatriots, Charles Sumner was 
declared to have received one hundred and nine- 
ty-three votes, and to be United States senator 
for six years ; it having required ninety-three 
days to effect a concurrence of the House with 
the Senate's vote of January 22d. 

At that moment the breath of life went out of 
the Whig party in Massachusetts. A little longer 
it had a " name to live," but " was dead." 



170 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

The Democratic party had gained a temporary 
triumph, but it was by putting forward its most 
powerful future antagonist. 

The real victor was the little party of freedom, 
which had obtained a leader, who, through " evil 
report and good report," and through " deaths 
oft," was to uphold their cause in the national 
Senate with a consistency and a firmness hitherto 
unparalleled on the floor of Congress. 

His election was a national triumph. Congrat- 
ulations came in from all the Free States, and 
from the friends of humanity abroad. 

John G .Whittier, an " original " abolitionist, was 
among the first to express his gladness at the event. 
" I rejoice," he wrote to Mr. Sumner, " that, un- 
pledged, free, and without a single concession or 
compromise, thou art enabled to take thy seat in 
the Senate. I never knew such a general feeling 
of real heart-pleasure and satisfaction as is mani- 
fested by all except inveterate Hunkers, in view 
of thy election. The whole country is electrified 
by it. Sick abed, I heard the guns, Quaker as I 
am, with real satisfaction." 

" Thank God, we have at last got a Governor 
that can walk.'^ said an old apple- woman, in the 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 171 

year 1797, as Increase Sumner, a cousin of Charles 
Sumner's father, a man of athletic frame and 
majestic appearance, passed from the Old South 
Church after the election sermon. His prede- 
cessors, Adams and Hancock, had been crippled 
by gout or infirmity. 

Thank God, Massachusetts had at last got a Sen- 
ator that could walk, and with the firm and upright 
step of a real man. " Laus Deo,^^ wrote Mr. Chase 
when he heard of the event, and all lovers of free- 
dom re-echoed the sentiment. 

Mr. Sumner heard of the election while at the 
house of Hon. Charles Francis Adams, in Boston, 
and there received the first congratulations. A 
proposition for a public demonstration at his own 
house in the evening he discountenanced, saying, 
that, while feeling grateful to friends for their 
kindness, he was unwilling to do or say anything 
that could be construed by any one as evidence 
of personal triumph, — that it was the triumph of 
the cause, but that his heart dictated silence. 
The account given in the second volume of his 
Works, further states, that " in the evening there 
was a meeting for congratulation in State Street, 
where speeches were made by Hon. Henry Wil- 



172 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

son and others." The crowd in State Street 
moved to the house of Mr, Sumner, but he had 
left the city. 

A well-known colored man of the city, Lewis 
Hayden, who had been a fugitive slave, says 
that towards evening he met Mr, Sumner in 
Cambridge Street, who said to him, " I am doing 
what you did once — running away. I am a fugi- 
tive — from my friends." He was on his way to 
Cambridge, to his friend, Mr. Longfellow. 

Besides other considerations, the solemn re- 
sponsibilities, which he well knew were awaiting 
him, may also have weighed heavily upon Mr. 
Sumner's mind. 

He was, further, making another great sacri- 
fice. "We have seen how, at an earlier period, in 
1845, and again during the discussions on Prison 
Discipline, he had lost caste, in distinguished 
social circles, for his radical novelties, and his 
crossing the path of older and most reverend 
worthies in church and state. But now, doors 
which had been partially closed were to be shut 
in his face. He had allowed himself to be a com- 
petitor with a gentleman whom conservative Bos- 
ton delighted to honor, and had actually taken 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 173 

possession of that dignified position of senator, 
which had seemed made vacant on purpose fai 
Mr. Winthrop. This was not to be endured. 

Most of Mr. Sumner's immediate literary friends, 
to whom he had been closely bound, now, with 
very few exceptions, turned their backs upon 
him. Among the exceptions were Mr. Prescott 
and Mr. Longfellow, whose friendship was immov- 
able. One friend, distinguished for his classical 
attainments, would not, from this time, speak to 
Mr. Sumner, nor recognize him when they chanced 
to meet in the street; though in after years a 
hearty reconciliation took place. Such treatment 
must have saddened Mr. Sumner's heart, though 
it could not turn him from his high purpose. Not 
Plato, but Truth. 

Through all these transactions we see the gen- 
uine greatness of the m.an. He did not seek 
office. Office sought him. " No man," says a 
journal of that day, " ever accepted office with 
cleaner hands than Charles Sumner. He con- 
sented to receive the nomination with extreme 
reluctance. His pursuits, his tastes, his aspira- 
tions, were in a different direction. He earnestly 
entreated his friends to select some other candi- 



174 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

date. After he was nominated, an onslaught, 
unprecedented for ferocity and recklessness in 
political warfare, had seemed to render his elec- 
tion impossible, unless he would authorize some 
qualification of the alleged obnoxious doctrines 
of his speeches, particularly of his last Faneuil 
Hall speech. Mr. Sumner refused to retract, 
qualify, or explain. Ten lines from his pen — 
lines that a politician might have written without 
even the appearance of a change of sentiment — 
would have secured his election in January. No 
solicitation of friends or opponents could extort 
a line. 

" A delegation of Hunkers applied to him for a 
few words to cover their retreat. In reply, he 
stated that he had no pledges to give, no explana- 
tions to make ; he referred them to his published 
speeches for his position, and added, that he had 
not sought the office, but if it came to him it must 
find him an independent man. To another Dem- 
ocrat, who called on him on the same errand, he 
said, 'If by walking around my office I could 
secure the senatorship, I would not take a step.' 
" In February he placed in the hands of General 
[now Vice-President] Wilson [then president of 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 175 

the state Senate] a letter authorizing that gentle- 
man to withdraw his name, whenever, in his judg- 
ment, the good of the cause should require it." * 

Besides a letter of acceptance sent to both 
Houses, Mr. Sumner, following the precedent set 
by John Quincy Adams in 1808, addressed the 
legislature directly. In that speech he said, " If 
I were to follow the customary course, I should 
receive this [certificate of .election] in silence. 
But the protracted and unprecedented contest 
which ended in my election, the interest it awa- 
kened, the importance universally conceded to it, 
the ardor of opposition, and the constancy of sup- 
port which it aroused, also the principles which 
more than ever among us it brought into discus- 
sion, seem to justify what my own feelings irre- 
sistibly prompt — a departure from this rule. . . . 

" Your appointment finds me in a private station, 
with which I am entirely content. For the first 
time in my life I am called to political office. 
With none of the experience possessed by others 
to smooth the way of labor, I well might hesitate. 
But I am cheered by the generous confidence, 
which, throughout a lengthened contest, perse- 

* Daily Comuioinvcaltli, April 25, 1851, 



176 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

vered in sustaining me, and by the conviction 
that, amidst all seeming differences of party, the 
sentiments of which I am the known advocate, 
and which led to my original selection as candi- 
date, are dear to the hearts of the people through- 
out this commonwealth. . . . 

" Acknowledging the right of my country to 
the services of her sons wherever she chooses to 
place them, and with a heart full of gratitude that 
a sacred cause is permitted to triumph through 
me, I now accept the post of senator. 

" I accept it as the servant of Massachusetts, 
mindful of the sentiments solemnly uttered by her 
successive legislatures, of the genius which in- 
spires her history, and of the men, her perpetual 
pride and ornament, who breathed into her that 
breath of liberty which early made her an ex- 
ample to the States. In such service, the way, 
though new to my footsteps, is illumined by lights 
which cannot be missed. . . . 

" Let me borrow, in conclusion, the language 
of another : / I see my duty — that of standing 
up for the liberties of my country ; and whatever 
difficulties and discouragements lie in my way, I 
dare not shrink from it ; and I rely on that Being 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 177 

who has not left to us the choice of duties, that, 
whilst I conscientiously discharge mine, I shall 
not finally lose my reward.' These are words at- 
tributed to Washington in the early days of the 
American revolution. The rule of duty is the 
same for the lowly and the great; and I hope it 
may not seem presumptuous in one so humble as 
myself to adopt his determination, and to avow 
his confidence." 

And so Massachusetts sent a Man to represent 
her in the " high places of the field." 

The same month Horace Mann wrote from his 
place in Washington, " My dear Sumner, Laus 
Deo ! Good, better, best, better yet ! By the 
necessity of the case, you are now to be a poli- 
tician — an honest one. Scores have asked 
whether you would be true. I have under- 
written to the amount of twenty reputations." 
12 



178 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Lifting up and Casting down. — Tliomas Sims 
a Fugitive Slave. — Returned to his " Ilaster.^' 

— Theodore Parker. — 3Ir. Sumner^s Opinion. 

— His First Remarks in the Senate. — Kos- 
suth. — Land Bill. — Roads. — J. Fenimore 
Cooper. — Drayton and Sayres. — Anxiety of 
Mr. Sumner^s Friends. — Fugitive Slave Rill. 

— Attempt to get a Hearing. — His Friends 
censure him. — Letter to Mr. Parker. — The 
great Opportunity improved. 

We will go back a little way to the time when 
the voting for senator was yet going on in the 
legislature. Between the nineteenth and twen- 
tieth ballotings, — that is, between March 19 and 
April 20, 1851, — another scene, of far different 
character, was enacting in a United States com- 
missioner's court, in the same city of Boston — 
different, yet strangely connected with the other 
in the State House. 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 179 

■ In the one case the question was, which one 
of two freemen should be elevated to a high post 
of honor ; in the other, whether a man, an Amer- 
ican, should be sent back to slavery. What a 
jumble of ideas in a free, Christian land ! 

One American was exalted to oifice, another 
American was deemed to be a slave, the property 
of yet another American, and went down again 
into his prison-house. 

Doubtless this example of the injustice and bar- 
barity of slavery, right under the shadow of the 
State House, helped to nerve the friends of free- 
dom to stand b^ Mr. Sumner. 

Thomas Sims, poor fellow, had found his way 
to Boston in search of freedom, and for a time 
felt comparatiyely safe, close by the " Cradle of 
Liberty." He was seized under the false charge 
of having stolen a watch, and hurried off, after 
he had made a stout resistance, to the Court 
House, which was converted into a jail. While 
being taken from the carriage into the Court 
House, he uttered the broken cry, " I am in the 
hands of the kidnappers." 

The jail was guarded by the city marshal and 
sixty members of the city police. • A detachment 



180 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

of the military was also ordered out. Chains were 
placed around the building, and all citizens were 
strictly prohibited admission, except members of 
the press and the bar. 

Before the commissioner, Sims was defended 
by Robert Rantoul, Jr., Charles G. Loring, and 
Samuel E. Sewall. The last gentleman, always 
an ardent friend of freedom, had specially inter- 
ested himself in the case. On the 12th of April, 
Sims was adjudged to be the property of a man 
named Potter. In one week more he was back 
again in Savannah. 

Being delivered to his " master," he was taken 
down State Street, under an escort of two or 
three hundred men, in violation of the laws of 
the State, on his way back to the house of bon- 
dage. 

It was of this outrage that Theodore Parker, 
who was never silent when liberty was at stake, 
said at a public meeting, " Nine days he was on 
trial for more than his life, and never saw a judge, 
never saw a jury. He was sent forth into bon- 
dage from the city of Boston. You remember the 
chains that were put around the Court House, you 
remember the judges of Massachusetts stooping, 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 181 

crouching, creeping, crawling, under the chains 
of slavery, in order to get into their own 
court." 

The truth of history compels us to add, that 
"the state and city authorities, the judiciary, the 
military, the merchants," and very many of the 
citizens, approved the surrender. 

Some months before, Shadrach, a fugitive slave, 
had been rescued, and had escaped. The com- 
mercial interests of Boston seemed to require 
some offering to the slave power, and Sims was 
made to pass through the fire to appease the 
Southern Moloch. 

Mr. Sumner was deeply interested in, this in- 
famous affair. April 19, a week after the rendi- 
tion, he wrote to Mr. Parker from his office in 
Court Street. Mr. Parker had preached on the 
subject on Sunday, the 11th. 

" May you live a thousand years, always 
preaching the truth of Fast day ! That sermon 
is a noble effort. It stirred me to the bottom of my 
heart, at times softening me almost to tears, and 
then again filling me with rage. . . . 

" You have placed the commissioner in an im- 
mortal pillory, to receive the hootings and rotten 
eggs of the advancing generations. . . . 



182 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

" My appeal is to the people, and my hopes to 
create in Massachusetts such a public opinion as 
will render the law a dead letter. It is in vain 
to expect its repeal by Congress till the slave 
power is overthrown. 

" It is, however, with a rare dementia that this 
power has staked itself on a position which is so 
ofiensive, and which cannot for any length of 
time be tenable. In enacting that law, it has 
given to the Free States a sphere of discussion 
which they would otherwise have missed." 

And so Charles Sumner went to his seat at 
"Washington, and Thomas Sims to a plantation in 
Georgia. But the lofty senator and the lowly 
slave were, after all, co-laborers in the cause of 
freedom — 'yes, and co-sufferers. 

In December, 1851, Mr. Sumner took his place 
in the Senate ; and it is an interesting fact, that 
the very day he went into the chamber, Henry 
Clay went out of it, never to return — a fact 
symbolical of the going out of the old era of 
compromise, and the coming in of a new era of 
principle. 

Mr. Sumner's first speech in the Senate, De- 
cember 10, was very short, but it was character- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 183 

istic of the man. His heart embraced every man 
who, in whatever land, showed himself the self- 
sacrificing friend of our struggling humanity. 
When, then, a resolution was introduced by Mr. 
Seward extending to Louis Kossuth, the Hun- 
garian patriot, a national welcome, it had in Mr. 
Sumner a warm advocate, " I see in him," said 
he, "more than in any other living man, the 
power which may be exerted by a single earnest, 
honest soul in a noble cause. . . . He seems at 
times the fiery sword of freedom, and then the 
trumpet of resurrection to the nations." 

Mr. Sumner regarded slavery as now the one 
supreme question, but he could and did take 
a comprehensive survey of all subjects of na- 
tional importance. And although senator from 
Massachusetts, he also knew that he was senator 
of the United States. Hence, when, in February, 
1852, a bill came up afiecting the interests of the 
land States in the West, — the Iowa Railroad Bill, 
— 'he strongly urged a grant of land to that State 
in aid of certain railroads. Hear what he had to 
say about roads : — 

"It would be difficult to exaggerate the in- 
fluence of roads as means of civilization. This at 



184 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

least may be said, where roads are not, civiliza- 
tion cannot be ; and civilization advances as roads 
are extended. By roads religion and knowledge 
are diffused, — intercourse of all kinds is pro- 
moted, — producer, manufacturer, and consumer 
are all brought nearer together, — commerce 
IS quickened, markets are created, — property, 
wherever touched by these lines, as by a magic 
rod is changed into new value ; and the great 
current of travel, like that stream of classic fable, 
or one of the rivers of our own California, hur- 
ries in a channel of golden sand. The roads, to- 
gether with the laws, of ancient Rome are now 
better remembered than her victories. The 
Flaminian and Appian Ways, once trod by such 
great destinies, still remain as beneficent repre- 
sentatives of ancient grandeur. Under God, the 
road and the schoolmaster are two chief agents 
of human improvement. The education begun 
by the schoolmaster is expanded, liberalized, and 
completed by intercourse with the world ; and 
this intercourse finds new opportunities and in- 
ducements in every road that is built." 

About the same time, Mr. Sumner, in response 
to an invitation to a proposed demonstration in 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. IfeO 

memory of J. Fenimore Cooper, paid a just and 
graceful tribute to the great American novelist : 

" As an author of clear and manly prose, as a 
portrayer to the life of scenes on land and sea, 
as a master of the keys to human feelings, and 
as a beneficent contributor to the general fund 
of happiness, he is remembered with delight. 
As a patriot who loved his country, who illus- 
trated its history, who advanced its character 
abroad, and by his genius won for it the unwill- 
ing regard of foreign* nations, he deserves a 
place in the hearts of the American people." 

Some time after this, Mr. Sumner became in- 
terested in the case of two men, Drayton and 
Sayres, incarcerated at Washington for helping 
the escape of slaves. On the 14th of May, he 
submitted an opinion to the president upon his 
pardoning power, hoping to effect their release. 

The case is thus stated by Mr. Sumner him- 
self:— 

" This case, from beginning to end, is a curious 
episode of anti- slavery history. The people of 
Washington were surprised, on the morning of 
April 16, 1848, at hearing that the 'Pearl,' 
a schooner from the North, had sailed down 



186 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

the Potomac with seventy-six slaves, who had 
hurried aboard in the vain hope of obtaining 
their freedom. The schooner was pursued and 
brought back to Washington, with her human 
cargo, and the Kberators, Drayton, master, and 
Sayres, mate. As the latter were taken from 
the river-side to the jail, they were followed by 
a pro-slavery mob, estimated at from four to six 
thousand people, many armed with deadly weap- 
ons, amid wrathful cries of — ' Hang him ! ' 
' Lynch him ! ' with all profanities and abom- 
inations of speech, and exposed to violence of 
all kinds, — the thrust of a dirk-knife coming 
within an inch of Drayton. The same mob be- 
sieged the jail, and, hearing that Hon. Joshua 
R. Giddings, the brave representative of Ohio, 
was there in consultation with the prisoners, 
demanded his immediate expulsion; and the 
jailer, to save bloodshed, insisted upon his de- 
parture. Nor was the prevailing rage confined 
to the jail. It extended to the office of the 
National Era, the anti-slavery paper, which 
was saved from destruction only through the 
courage and calmness of its admirable editor. 
The spirit of the mob entered both houses of 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 187 

Congress, and the slave-masters raged, as was 
their wont. 

" Meanwhile, Drayton and Sayres were in- 
dicted before the Criminal Court of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, for 'transporting slaves.' 
There were no less than one hundred and fifteen 
indictments against each of the prisoners, and 
the bail demanded of each was seventy-six 
thousand dollars. Hon. Horace Mann, a rep- 
resentative of Massachusetts, appeared for the 
defence. His speech on this occasion will be 
read with constant interest. The spirit of the 
mob without entered the court-room, betraying 
itself even in the conduct of the judge, while, 
standing near the devoted counsel for the de- 
fence, were men who cocked pistols and drew 
dirks in the mob that followed the prisoners to 
the jail. Of course the verdict was ' guilty,' 
and the sentence was according to the extreme 
requirement of a barbarous law. 

'• Drayton and Sayres lingered in prison more 
than four years, and during this long incarcera- 
tion, they were the objects of much sympathy 
at the North. A petition to Congress in their be- 
half, signed by leading abolitionists, including the 



188 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

eloquent Wendell Phillips, was forwarded to Mr. 
Sumner for presentation to the Senate. On care- 
ful consideration, he was satisfied that such a 
petition, if presented, would excite the dominant 
power to insist more strongly than ever on the 
letter of the law, and he took the responsibility 
of withholding it. Meanwhile he visited the suf- 
ferers in prison, and appealed to President Pill- 
more for their pardon. In this application he 
was aided by that humane lady, Miss Dix. The 
president interposed doubts of his right to par- 
don in such a case, but expressed a desire for 
light on this point. 

" At his invitation, Mr. Sumner laid before him 
a paper, which was referred to the attorney- gen- 
eral, Mr. Crittenden, who gave an opinion affirm- 
ing the power of the president ; adding, however, 
' Whether the power shall be exercised in this 
instance is another and very different question.' 
This opinion bears date August 4, 1852, which, it 
will be observed, was some time after the presi- 
dential convention of the two great political par- 
ties. Shortly afterwards the pardon was granted. 

" There was reason to believe that an attempt 
would be made to arrest the pardoned persons 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 189 

on warrants from the governor of Virginia. An- 
ticipating this peril, Mr. Sumner, as soon as the 
pardon was signed, hurried to the jail in a car- 
riage, and, taking them with him, put them in 
charge of a friend, who conveyed them that 
night to Baltimore, a distance of forty miles, 
where they arrived in season for the early morn- 
ing trains north, and in a few hours were out of 
danger." * 

About seven months had now elapsed since 
Mr. Sumner took his seat in Congress ; and yet, 
with the exception of brief remarks on present- 
ing a memorial from some Friends against the 
Fugitive Slave Bill, his voice had not been heard 
in defence of the great cause for which mainly 
he had been sent there. His friends in Massa- 
chusetts began to feel some measure of anxiety. 
Theodore Parker had written to him, more than a 
year before, " I hope you will be the senator with 
a conscience. I look to you to represent justice. 
I expect much of you. I expect heroism of the 
most heroic kind." Writing to Dr. S. G. Howe, 
Mr. Parker said, " Do you see what imminent 

* Works of Charles Sumner. Boston : Lee & Shepard. 



190 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

deadly peril poor Sumner is in ? If he does not 
speak, then he is dead." 

So potent in previous years had been the 
Southern spell, either by blandishments or men- 
aces, to seal the lips of Northern men upon the 
subject of slavery, that it is scarcely strange that 
doubts even o.f Charles Sumner's courage and 
conscience began to arise ; for he, too, had been 
approached, in the old way so well understood 
by Southern gentlemen, with soft and courteous 
words. But our Samson was not to be taken in 
the toils which had captured so many Northern 
men. He knew what their polished phrases 
meant. 

He had counted the cost, and was all the while 
but watching his opportunity. At length, July 
27, 1852, he broke silence. " I have a resolu- 
tion," said he in his place, " which I desire to 
offer ; and as it is not in order to debate it to- 
day, I give notice that I shall expect to call it up 
to-morrow, at an early moment in the morning 
hour, when I shall throw myself upon the indul- 
gence of the Senate to be heard upon it. 

" ' Resolved, That the committee on the judi- 
ciary be instructed to consider the expediency 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 191 

of reporting a bill for the immediate repeal of the 
act of Congress, approved September 18, 1850, 
known as the Fugitive Slave Act.' " 

The next day he asked permission to take up 
the resolution. " As a senator," he said, " under 
the responsibilities of my position, I have deemed 
it my duty to offer the resolution. I may seem 
to have postponed this duty to an inconvenient 
period of the session : but had I attempted it at 
an earlier day, I might have exposed myself to a 
charge of a different character. It might have 
been said, that, a new-comer, and inexperienced 
in this scene, without deliberation, hastily, rashly, 
recklessly, I pushed this question before the 
country. This is not the case now. I have taken 
time, and, in the exercise of my most careful dis- 
cretion, at last ask the attention of the Senate." 

And then he added, " Make such disposition of 
my resolution afterwards as to you shall seem 
best ; visit upon me any degree of criticism, 
censure, or displeasure ; but do not refuse me a 
hearing. ' Strike, but hear.' " 

/The Senate, by a vote of thirty-two against ten, 
refused to hear him. Those who voted in the 
affirmative were Messrs. Clarke, Davis, Dodge, 



192 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

Foot, Hamlin, Seward, Shields, Upham, and 
Wade. 

The slave power boasted, that, for that session 
at least, the Massachusetts abolitionist should 
not be heard. 

But while his enemies boasted, his friends cen- 
sured. Even now suspicion was not entirely 
removed. Surely Mr. Sumner might contrive 
some way to compel a hearing, if he wished to. 
So said many of his friends in Massachusetts. 
Even the Liberator allowed itself to indulge in 
an ungenerous fling at the silent senator. He 
must be under an overseer ! Theodore Parker, 
too, who knew Mr. Sumner so well, was not satis- 
fied, and so he wrote to him. To this the sena- 
tor replied, August 11, — 

" I will not argue the question of past delay. 
To all that can be said on that head, there is this 
explicit answer. With a heart full of devotion 
to our cause, in the exercise of my best discre- 
tion, and on the advice or with the concurrence of 
friends, I have waited. It may be that this was 
unwise, but it was honestly and sincerely adopted, 
with a view to serv€ the cause. Let this pass. 

" You cannot desire a speech from me more 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 193 

than I desire to make one. I came to the Senate 
on my late motion (July 27), prepared for the 
work, hoping to be allowed to go on, with the 
promise of leaders from all sides that I should 
have a hearing, I was cut off. No chance for 
courtesy. I must rely upon my rights. 

" You tell me not to wait for the Civil Appro- 
priation Bill. I know that it is hardly within the 
range of possibilities that any other bill should 
come forward, before this bill, to which my 
amendment can be attached. For ten days we 
have been on the Indian Appropriation Bill. 
"With this the Fugitive Slave Bill is not ger- 
mane. ' 

" The Civil Appropriation Bill will probably 
pass the House to-day. It will come at once to 
the Senate, be referred to the Committee on 
Finance, be reported back by them with amend- 
ments. After the consideration of these amend- 
ments of the committee, and not before, my chance 
will come. For this I am prepaixd, with a deter- 
mination equal to your own. All this delay is to 
me a source of grief and disappointment. But I 
know my heart ; and I know that sincerely, singly, 
I have striven for the cause. 
13 



194 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

" You remember the picture in the ' Ancient 
Mariner ' of the ship in the terrible calm ? In such 
a calm is my ship at this moment ; I cannot move 
it. But I claim the confidence of friends, for I 
know that I deserve it. . . . There is a time for 
all things." 

Directly after he wrote again, " In my course 
I have thought little what people would say, 
whether Hunkers or Free Soilers, but lioio I could 
most serve the cause. This consciousness sustains 
me now, while I hear reports of distrust, and 
note the gibes of the press. 

" Nothing hut death or deadly injustice, over 
throwing all rule, can prevent me from speaking. 
In waiting till I did, I was right." 

It looks to us, at this time, as if Mr. Parker 
acted with a measure of officiousness, too much 
in the character of a conscience-keeper, when he 
thus seemed to dictate to Mr. Sumner his line of 
duty ; though, perhaps, he used only the frank 
freedom of a friend. 

But Mr. Sumner, on the spot, best understood 
his position, its difficulties and opportunities. Af- 
ter the 26th of August there was no more distrust. 

We may here premise, that a chief artifice of 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 195 

the Whigs and Democrats — both bidding for 
Southern patronage — was the cry, that they, 
standing by the compromise measures, consti- 
tuted the national party, while all others were 
chargeable with sectionalism. Mr. Sumner de- 
termined to reverse the order, to prove that 
freedom was national, slavery sectional. But 
how could he get a hearing before a body which 
had just commanded silence ? No thanks to the 
Senate. The Civil Diplomatic Appropriation Bill 
being under consideration, the following amend- 
ment was proposed by Mr. Hunter, of Virginia : — 

" That, where the ministerial officers of the 
United States have or shall incur extraordinary 
expenses in executing the laws thereof, the pay- 
ment of which is not specifically provided for, the 
President of the United States is authorized to 
allow the payment thereof, under the special 
taxation of the District or Circuit Court of the 
District in which the said services have been or 
shall be rendered, to be paid from the appropria- 
tion for defraying the expenses of the Judiciary." 

The " extraordinary expenses " of course meant 
those incurred in the apprehension, trial, and 
rendition of fugitive slaves, under the recently 
enacted Fugitive Slave Bill. 



196 ' LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

His hour had oome. Mr. Sumner immediately 
moved the following amendment to the amend- 
ment : — 

"Provided, That no such allowance shall be 
authorized for any expenses incurred in execut- 
ing the act of September 18, 1850, for the sur- 
render of fugitives from service or labor ; which 
said act is hereby repealed." 

When it was known that Mr. Sumner intended 
to speak, several senators came to him, begging 
him to desist from his purpose. He replied, 
" God willing, I shall speak, and press the ques- 
tion to a vote, even if I am left alone." 

He did speak, and for nearly four hours. It 
must have been a thrilling scene. There, before 
the speaker, were his fellow-senators, all of them 
bitteV opponents, or timid friends, save a little 
handful of hated, yet despised abolitionists, a 
helpless minority. He was to speak upon a sub- 
ject so " delicate," that barely to mention it was 
to throw the slaveholding members into spasms, 
— the one subject which alone, of all others, 
might not be brought into discussion. Whigs 
and Democrats had combined to compel him to 
silence ; hitherto with success. But behold, he 
has the floor, and they must hear him. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNEE. 197 

Mr. Sumner knew that he was addressing more 
than the Senate. The whole country was his au- 
dience. And he rose to the greatness and solem- 
nity of the occasion. Inspired by a profound 
sense of justice, sustained by a firm conviction 
that he was right, and by the certain belief in the 
final triumph of his cause, he knew that he had 
the advantage of his opponents. He knew that 
their consciences were on his side ; and he looked 
them in the face without quailing. There was a 
voice which said to him, " Fear not, for they that 
be with us are more than they that be with them." 
He knew that in '• dear old Massachusetts " and 
elsewhere, he had the warm sympathies of valued 
friends of humanity. = His was the cause of God. 

" Mr. President," he began, " here is a provis- 
ion for extraordinary expenses incurred in exe- 
cuting the laws of the United States. Extraordi- 
nary expenses ! Sir, beneath these specious words 
lurks the very subject on which, by a solemn vote 
of this body, I was refused a hearing. Here it is ; 
no longer open to the charge of being an ' ab- 
straction,' but actually presented for practical 
legislation ; not introduced by me, but by the 
senator from Virginia (Mr. Hunter), on the rec- 



198 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

ommendation of an important committee of the 
Senate ; not brought forward weeks ago, when 
there was ample time for discussion, but only at 
this moment, without any reference to the late 
period of the session. The amendment which I 
offer proposes to remove one chief occasion of 
these extraordinary expenses. Beyond all con- 
troversy or cavil, it is strictly in order. And now, 
at last, among these final crowded days of our 
duties here, but at this earliest opportunity, I am 
to be heard — not as a favor, but as a right. The 
graceful usages of this body may be abandoned, 
but the established privileges of debate cannot be 
abridged. Parliamentary courtesy may be for- 
gotten, but parliamentary law must prevail. The 
subject is broadly before the Senate. By the 
blessing of God it shall be discussed. 

" With me, sir, there is no alternative. Pain- 
fully convinced of the unutterable wrong and woe 
of slavery, — profoundly believing that, accord- 
ing to the true spirit of the Constitution and the 
sentiments of the fathers, it can find no place 
under our national government, — that it is in 
every respect sectional, and in no respect national, 
— that it is always and everywhere creature and 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 199 

dependant of the States^ and never anywhere 
creature or dependant of the Nation, and that the 
Nation can never, by legislative or other act, im- 
part to it any support under the Constitution of 
the United States, — with these convictions I 
could not allow this session to reach its close 
without making or seizing an opportunity to de- 
clare myself openly against the usurpation, injus- 
tice, and cruelty of the late intolerable enactment 
foli the recovery of fugitive slaves. Full well I 
know, sir, the difficulties of this discussion, aris- 
ing from prejudices of opinion and from adverse 
conclusions, strong and sincere as my own. Full 
well I "know that I am in a small minority, with 
few here to whom I can look for sympathy or sup- 
port. Full well I know that I must utter things 
unwelcome to many in this body, which I cannot 
do without pain. Full well I know that the insti- 
tution of slavery in our country, which I now 
proceed to consider, is as sensitive as it is power- 
ful, possessing a power to shake the whole land, 
with a sensitiveness that shrinks and trembles at 
the touch. But while these things may properly 
ptompt me to caution and reserve, they cannot 
change my duty or my determination to perform 



200 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

it. For this I willingly forget myself and all per- 
sonal consequences. The favor and good-will of 
my fellow- citizens, of my brethren of the Senate, 
sir, grateful to me as they justly are, I am ready, 
if required, to sacrifice. Whatever I am or may 
be I freely ofi(3r to this cause. 

" Party does not constrain me ; nor is my inde- 
pendence lessened by any relations to the ofiice 
which gives me a title to be heard on this floor. 
Here, sir, I speak proudly. By no effort, by «io 
desire of my own, I find myself a senator of 
the United States. Never before have I held 
public office of any kind. With the ample 
opportunities of private life I was content. No 
tombstone for me could bear a fairer inscription 
than this : * Here lies one who, without the hon- 
ors or emoluments of public station, did something 
for his fellow-men.' From such simple aspira- 
tions I was taken away by the free choice of my 
native Commonwealth, and placed at this respon- 
sible post of duty, without personal obligations 
of any kind, beyond what was implied in my life 
and published words. ... 

" Rejoicing in my independence, and claiming 
nothing from party ties, I throw myself upon the 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 201 

candor and magnanimity of the Senate. I ask 
yonr attention ; I trust not to abuse it. I may 
speak strongly, for I shall speak openly, and from 
the strength of my convictions. I may speak 
tvarmly, for I shall speak from the heart. But in 
no event can I forget the amenities which belong 
to debate, and which especially become this 
body. Slavery I must condemn with my whole 
soul ; but here I need only borrow the language 
of slaveholders ; nor would it accord with my 
habits or my sense of justice to exhibit them as 
the impersonation of the institution — Jefferson 
calls it the ' enormity ' — which they cherish. Of 
them I do not speak ; but without fear and with- 
out favor, as without impeachment of any person, 
I assail this wrong. Again, sir, I may err ; but 
it will be with the fathers. I plant myself on 
the ancient ways of the republic, with its grand- 
est names, its surest landmarks, and all its origi- 
nal altar-fires about me." 

Referring to the effort to suppress free speech, 
Mr. Sumner said, '■ But. sir, this effort is impotent 
as tyrannical. Convictions of the heart cannot 
be repressed. Utterances of conscience must be 
heard. They break forth with irrepressible 



202 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

might. As well attempt to check the tides of 
Ocean, the currents of the Mississippi, or the rush- 
ing waters of Niagara. The discussion of slavery 
will proceed, wherever two or three are gathered 
together — by the fireside, on the highway, at the 
public meeting, in the church. The movement 
against slavery is from the Everlasting Arm. 
Even now it is gathering its forces, soon to be 
confessed everywhere. It may not be felt yet in 
the high places of office and power, but all who can 
put their ears humbly to thQ ground will hear and 
comprehend its incessant and advancing tread." 

The argument proving the national character 
of freedom is thus condensed : '' Considering that 
slavery is of such an offensive character that it 
can find sanction only in ' positive law,' and that 
it has no such ' positive ' sanction in the Constitu- 
tion, — that the Constitution, according to its 
preamble, was ordained to ' establish justice ' and 
' secure the blessings of liberty,' — that, in the 
convention which framed it, and also elsewhere 
at the time, it was declared not to sanction 
slavery, — that, according to the Declaration of 
Independence, and the Address of the Continen- 
tal Congress, the nation was dedicated to ' liber- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 203 

ty ' and the ' rights of human nature/ — that, ac- 
cording to the principles of the common law, the 
Constitution must be interpreted openly, actively, 
and perpetually for freedom, — that, according to 
the decision of the Supreme Court, it acts upon 
slaves, not as property, but as persons, — that, at 
the first organization of the national government 
under Washington, slavery had no national favor, 
existed nowhere on the national territory, be- 
neath the national flag, but was openly con- 
demned, by nation, church, colleges, and litera- 
ture of the time, — and finally, that according to 
an amendment of the Constitution, the national 
government can exercise only powers delegated 
to it, among which is none to support slavery, 
— considering these things, sir, it is impossible 
to avoid the single conclusion that slavery is 
in no respect a national institution, and that 
the Constitution nowhere upholds property in 
man." 

Mr. Sumner thus characterized the Fugitive 
Slave Act of 1850 : " Oppression by an individual 
is detestable ; but oppression by law is worse. 
Hard and inscrutable, when the law, to which the 
citizen naturally looks for protection, becomes 



204 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

itself a standing peril. As the sword takes the 
place of the shield, despair settles down like a 
cloud. . . . 

" With every attempt to administer the Slave 
Act, it constantly becomes more revolting, partic- 
ularly in its influence on the agents it enlists. 
The spirit of the law passes into them, as the 
devils entered the swine. Upstart commissioners, 
mere mushrooms of courts, vie and re-vie with 
each other. Now by indecent speed, now by 
harshness of manner, now by denial of evidence, 
now by crippling the defence, and now by open, 
glaring wrong, they make the odious Act yet 
more odious. Clemency, grace, and justice die in 
its presence. All this is observed by the world. 
Not a case occurs which does not harrow the 
souls of good men, bringing tears of sympathy to 
the eyes, and those other noble tears which 
' patriots shed over dying laws.' " 

The heroism that shows itself in efforts to re- 
gam lost freedom is thus strikingly described: 
" Less by genius or eminent service than by suf- 
fering are the fugitive slaves of our country now 
commended. For them every sentiment of hu- 
manity is aroused. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEK. 205 

' Who could refrain, 
Thaf had a heart to love, iind in that heart 
Courage to make his love known ? ' 

Rude and ignorant they may be, but in tlieir 
very efforts for freedom they claim kindred 
with all that is noble in the past. Romance has 
no stories of more thrilling interest. Classical 
antiquity has preserved no examples of adventure 
and trial more worthy of renown. They are 
among the heroes of our age. Among them are 
those whose names will be treasured in the an- 
nals of their race. By eloquent voice they have 
done much to make their wrongs known, and to 
secure the respect of the world. History will 
soon lend her avenging pen. Proscribed by 
you during life, they wiU proscribe you through 
all time. Sir, already judgment is beginning. A 
righteous public sentiment palsies your enact- 
ment." 

The speech was followed by a debate, in which 
nineteen senators, from eighteen different States, 
took part; all in opposition to Mr. Sumner's 
amendment, except Mr. Chase, of Ohio, and Mr. 
Hale, of New Hampshire. Mr. Seward was ab- 
sent. Senators from nine Free States were among 



206 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

the opponents. Three Southern senators indulged 
in personalities. Mr. Chase, afterwards the hon- 
ored secretary of the treasury during the civil 
war, and yet later, chief justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, said, " In my judgment 
the speech of my friend from Massachusetts will 
mark an era in American history." Henry Wil- 
son, afterwards, for so many years, his co-agita- 
tor in the national Senate, and always his friend 
and able supporter, Wendell Phillips, Stephen C. 
Phillips, and many others, wrote to Mr. Sumner in 
a similar strain. 

The vote which followed the debate tells the 
sad tale of a Senate sold to slavery. On Mr. 
Sumner's amendment : Yeas, 4 ; nays, 47. The 
four were Messrs. Chase, Hale, Wade, and Sum- 
ner. 

But that small vote did not tell the whole story. 
The truth had had a hearing. Moreover, it had 
awakened the consciences, and touched the 
deeptjr, better feelings of some of the Southern 
auditors. 

A letter written to Rev. Dr. Stebbins, about 
two months later, gives us a very interesting in- 
sight into Mr. Sumner's feelings at this time, and 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 207 

also shows the happy effect of his speech, even 
upon slaveholders : — 

"Newport, R. L, October 12, '52. 
'• My dear Sir : I cannot receive the overflow- 
ing sympathy of your letter without a response. 
It has added to my happiness. The interest you 
express in that speech, and particularly in the 
latter part of it, emboldens me to write of it more 
freely than I have before. 

" I went to the Senate detennined to do my 
duty, but in my own way. Anxious for the cause, 
having it always in mind, I knew that I could not 
fail in loyalty, though I might err in judgment. 
All my instincts prompted delay. But meanwhile 
I was taunted and attacked at home. Had I been 
less conscious of the rectitude of my course, I 
might have sunk under these words. But I per- 
severed in my own way. 

" As I delivered the part to which you refer, I 
remember well the intent looks of the Senate, and 
particularly of Mr. King [president, pro tern., of 
the Senate]. It was already dinner time, but all 
were silent and attentive, and Hale [John P. 
Hale, of N. H.] tells me that Mr. Underwood, of 
Kentucky, by his side, was in tears. 

" From many leading Southern men I have re- 
ceived the strongest expressions of interest awa- 
kened in our cause, and a confession that they did 



208 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

not know before the strength of the argument on 
our side. Polk, of Tennessee, said to me, ' If you 
should make that speech in Tennessee, you would 
compel me to emancipate my niggers.' But 
enough of this. I have been tempted to it by the 
generosity of your letter. 

" Thankfully and truly yours, 

"Charles Sumner." 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 209 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Return to 3Iassachusetts. — Warm Welcome. — 
Speech at Lowell. — Free Soil Party. — Superin- 
tendents of Armories. — Convention to revise the 
Constitution of Massachusetts. — Colored Mili- 
tia. — The Eej^resentative System. — Nebraska 
and Kansas. — Stephen A. Douglas. — Mr. 
Sumner's Speech. — Final Protest. 

Mr. Sumner, on liis return to Massachusetts, at 
the close of the session, was warmly welcomed 
by the friends of freedom. He had done his duty 
well, under circumstances of the most trying- 
character. Where others had failed, he had not. 
At the State Convention of the Free Soil party, 
held in Lowell, September 15, 1852, presided 
over by Stephen C. Phillips, of Salem, Mr. Sum- 
ner was received with much enthusiasm. 

" After an absence," he said, '' of many months, 
I have now come homo to breathe anew the in- 
vigorating Northern air, to tread again the free 
14 



210 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

soil of our native Massachusetts, and to enjoy the 
sympathy of friends and fellow-citizens. But, 
while glad in your greetings, thus bounteously 
lavished, I cannot accept them for myself. I do 
not deserve them. They belong to the cause 
which we all have at heart, and which binds us 
together. ... I have done nothing but my duty." 

Farther on he said, " At the present time in 
our country, there exists a deep, controlling, con- 
scientious feeling against slavery. . . . The rising 
public opinion cannot flow in the old political chan- 
nels. It is impeded, choked, and dammed back. 
But if not through the old parties, then over the 
old parties, this irresistible current shall find its 
way. It cannot be permanently stopped. If the 
old parties will not become its organs, they must 
become its victims. The party of Freedom will 
certainly prevail. It may be by entering into and 
possessing one of the old parties, filling it with 
our own strong life ; or it may be by drawing to 
itself the good and true from both, who are un- 
willing to continue in a political combination when 
it ceases to represent their convictions ; but, in 
one way or the other, its ultimate triumph is sure. 

" At this moment we are in a minority. At the 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 211 

last popular election in Massachusetts there were 
twenty-eight thousand Free Soilers, forty-three 
thousand Democrats, and sixty-four thousand 
Whigs. But this is no reason for discouragement. 
According to recent estimates, the population of 
the whole world amounts to about eight hundred 
millions. Of these, only two hundred and sixty 
millions are Christians, while *the remaining five 
hundred and forty millions are mainly Mahome- 
tans, Brahmins, and idolaters! Because the Chris- 
tians are in this minority, that is jio reasou for 
renouncing Christianity, and for surrendering to 
the false religions ; nor do we doubt that Chris- 
tianity will yet prevail over the whole earth, as 
the waters cover the sea. The friends of free- 
dom in Massachusetts are Irkewise in a minority ; 
but they will not, therefore, renounce freedom, 
nor surrender to the political Mahometans, Brah- 
mins, and idolaters of Baltimore ; nor can they 
doubt that their cause, like Christianity, will yet 
prevail." 

Then, referring to the candidates of the party, 
be added, " With such a cause and such candi- 
dates, no man can be disheartened. The tempest 
may blow, — but ours is a life-boat, not to be 



212 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

harmed by wiud or wave. The Genius of Liberty 
sits at the helm. I hear her voice of cheer say- 
ing, ' Whoso sails with me comes to shore.' " 

On his return to the Senate, next year, Mr. Sum- 
ner made some remarks in favor of employing civil 
instead of military superintendents of armories. 
Here his peace principles came out — another, 
though slight, example of his remarkable consist- 
ency. '' I do affirm confidently," he said, " that the 
genius of our institutions favors civil life rather 
than military life, — and that, in harmony witli this, 
it is our duty, whenever the public interests will 
permit, to limit and restrict the sphere of military 
influence. This is not a military monarchy, where 
the soldier is supreme, but a republic, where the 
soldier yields to the civilian. . , . 

*■ The idea which has fallen from so many sen- 
ators, that the superintendent of an armory ought 
to be a military man, . . . seems to me to be as 
illogical as the jocular fallacy of Dr. Johnson, that 
he ' who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.' " 

Mr. Sumner was a member of the convention 
which met in 1853 to revise and amend the con. 
stitution of Massachusetts. He was an able and 
influential member. Among other resolutions 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 213 

wliich he advocated was the following : " That 
in the organization of the volunteer military com- 
panies of the Commonwealth there shall be no 
distinction of color or race.^^ 

He also spoke on the representative system 
and its proper basis, and on bills of rights — their 
history and policy. 

On the former topic he said, " This is an in- 
vention of modern times. In antiquity there 
were republics and democra-cies, but there w^as no 
representative system. Eulers were chosen by 
the people, as in many commonwealths ; senators 
were designated by the king or by the censors, 
as in Rome ; ambassadors or legates were sent to 
a federal council, as to the Assembly of the Am- 
phictyons ; but in no ancient state was any body 
of men ever constituted by the people to repre- 
sent them in the administration of their internal 
affairs. In Athens, the people met in public as- 
sembly, and directly acted for themselves on all 
questions, foreign or domestic. This was possi- 
ble there, as the state was small, and the Assem- 
bly seldom exceeded five thousand citizens, — a 
large town-meeting, or mass-meeting, we might 
call it, — not inaptly termed ' that fierce democ- 
ratic ' of Athens." 



214 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNEE. 

After alluding to the representative system 
as it exists in England, Mr. Sumner said, that " to 
our country belongs the honor of first giving to 
the world the idea of a system which, discarding 
corporate representation [as in England], founded 
itself absolutely on equality." The American 
system, as distinguished from the English, is the 
applying the rule of three to representation — a 
representation not according to property, not 
according to territory, not according to any cor- 
porate rights, but of persons, according to their re- 
spective numbers. " It gives to the great princi- 
ple of human equality a new expansion and ap- 
plication. It makes all men, in the enjoyment 
of the electoral franchise, whatever their diversi- 
ties of intelligence, education, or wealth, or where- 
soever they may be within the borders of the 
commonwealth, whether in small town or popu- 
lous city, absolutely equal at the ballot-box," 

" I cannot doubt that the district system, 
whereby the representative power will be dis- 
tributed in just proportion, according to the rule 
of three, among the voters of the Commonwealth, 
is the true system, destined at no distant day to 
prevail." 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 215 

In this connection Mr. Sumner said, '' No law- 
giver or statesman can disregard either history 
or abstract reason. He must contemplate both. 
He will faithfully study the Past, and will recog- 
nize its treasures and traditions ; but, with equal 
fidelity, he will set his face towards the Future, 
where all institutions will at last be in harmony 
with truth." 

Mr. Sumner's return to his seat in 1853 was 
signalized by a new and more audacious stage in 
the pro-slavery movement. Disappointed in Cali- 
fornia, the South was looking about for the means 
of extending the area of slavery even into re- 
gions from which it had been forever excluded 
by solemn compact. Thus originated the great 
struggle about Kansas and Nebraska. New 
States were soon to be formed out of the Terri- 
tory of Nebraska, lying north of thirty-six degrees 
thirty minutes north latitude. The slave power 
coveted this fertile region — this garden of 
Naboth. 

A Northern man, a native of free New Eng- 
land, Stephen A. Douglas, senator from Illinois, 
^ was the chief instrument in the perpetration of 
the great crime which soon followed. He sub- 



216 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

mitted a bill, dividing the Territory into two, 
Nebraska and Kansas, and declaring- tbe prohibi- 
tion of slavery contained in the Missouri Com- 
promise of 1820 " inconsistent with the principles 
of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in 
the States and Territories, as recognized by the 
legislation of 1850, commonly called the Com- 
promise Measures." 

According to this bill, Congress was not to 
legislate slavery into, nor exclude it from, any 
Territory or State, but to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
Constitution of the United States. This was just 
what was wanted by the South — a chance to 
carry slavery into all the new Territories. 

Mr. Sumner spoke most earnestly against the 
repeal of the Missouri prohibition of slavery, 
taking for his motto, " Cursed be he that re- 
moveth his neighbor's landmark, and all the 2^eo- 
ple shall say, Amen." The last words were ern- 
phasized by Mr. Sumner in the printed speech, 
indicating his remarkable, unwavering faith in 
the triumph of Right. 

These were his opening words : - — 



LIFE OP CHAKLES SUMNER. 217 

" I approach this discussion with awe. The 
mighty question, with untold issues, oppresses 
me. Like a portentous cloud surcharged with 
irresistible storm and ruin, it seems to fill the 
whole heavens, making me painfully conscious 
how unequal to the occasion I am — how unequal, 
also, is all that I can say to all that I feel. 

" The question for your consideration . . . con- 
cerns an immense region, larger than the original 
thirteen States, vying in extent with all the exist- 
ing Free States, — stretching over prairie, field, 
and forest, — interlaced by silver streams, skirted 
by protecting mountains, and constituting the 
heart of the North American continent — only a 
little smaller, let me add, than three great European 
countries combined, — Italy, Spain, and France, 
— each of which, in succession, has dominated 
over the globe. This territory has been likened, 
on this floor, to the garden of God. . . . The bill 
now before us proposes to organize and equip 
two new territorial establishments, with govern- 
ors, secretaries, legislatures, councils, legislators, 
judges, marshals, and the whole machinery of 
civil society. Such a measure at any time would 
deserve the most careful attention. But at the 



218 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

present moment it justly excites peculiar interest, 
from the effort made ... to open this immense 
region to slavery." 

Mr. Sumner arraigned this bill on two grounds : 
" First, in the name of public faith, as an infrac- 
tion of solemn obligations. . . . Secondly, in the 
name of freedom, as an unjustifiable departure 
from the original anti- slavery policy of our 
fathers." He showed that Southern members 
urged the compromise of 1820, and that it passed 
both Houses without a division. It was as much 
a Southern as a Northern measure. It was ap- 
proved by John C. Calhoun and other Southern 
members of Monroe's cabinet. Mr. Sumner would 
have the South keep the compact. 

To the argument that this proposition was a 
measure of peace, he replied, " Peace depends on 
mutual confidence. It can never rest secure 
on broken faith and injustice ; " and he added, 
" Amidst all seeming discouragements, the great 
omens are with us. Art, literature, poetry, re- 
ligion, everything which elevates man, are all on 
our side. The plough, the steam engine, the 
telegraph, the book, every human improvement, 
every generous word anywhere, every true pulsa- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 219 

tion of every heart which is not a mere muscle 
and nothing else, gives new encouragement to 
the warfare with slavery. The discussion will 
proceed. ... No political Joshua now, with 
miraculous power, can stop the sun in its course 
through the heavens. It is even now rejoicing, 
like a strong man, to run its race, and will yet 
send its beams into the most distant plantations, 
melting the chains of every slave." And this, 
nearly ten years before emancipation, when 
slavery seemed bent on yet new conquests ! 

To the objection that the movement against 
slavery was dangerous to the Union, Mr. Sum- 
ner replied, that in freedom only true union could 
exist, and that in the abolition of slavery the 
North and the South would hereafter be bound 
more closely together. In this connection he 
quoted from Shakespeare the remarkable dia- 
logue between Brutus and Cassius, in which 
Brutus might be considered as representing the 
North, Cassius the South : — 

" Cas. Urge me no more ; I shall forget myself. 
Have mind upon your health; tempt me no farther. 

Brut. Hear me, for I will speak. 

Must I give way and room to your rash choler ? 



220 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Cas. O 5'e gods ! ye gods ! must I endure all this ? 

Brid. All this ? Ay, more ; fret till your proud heart break ; 
Go, show your slaves how choleric you are. 
And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge ? 
Must I observe you ? Must I stand and crouch 
Under your testy humor ? 

Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love ; 
I may do that I shall be sorry for. 

Brtit. You have done that you should be sorry for. 
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats j 
For I am armed so strong in honesty, 
That they pass by me as the idle wind, 
Which I respect not. 

Cas. A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, 
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. 
Brut. I do not, till you practise them on me. 
Cas. You love me not. 
Bi-ut. I do not like your faults." 

All which ends at last in united heart and hand. 
So would it be if slavery should disappear. 

Three months later, May 25, 1854, Mr. Sum- 
ner uttered his last protest against the infamous 
bill, and against slavery in Nebraska and Kansas. 
It was at the final passage. At midnight, Mr. 
Sumner offered numerous remonstrances against 
the bill from different parts of the country, chiefly 
from New England, and then spoke briefly, but 
most eloquently. Among other things, he said, — 

" In passing such a bill as is now threatened, 
you scatter, from this dark midnight hour, no 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 221 

seeds of harmony and good-will, but, broadcast 
through the land, dragon's teeth, which haply 
may not spring up in direful crops of armed men, 
yet, I am assured, sir, will fructify in civil strife 
and feud. From the depths of my soul, as loyal 
citizen and as senator, I plead, remonstrate, pro- 
test against the passage of this bill. I struggle 
against it as against death ; but, as in death itself 
corruption puts on incorruption, and this mortal 
body puts on immortality, so from the sting of 
this hour I find assurance of that triumph by ivhich 
freedom ivill be restored to her immortal birthright 
in the Repvhlic. 

" Sir, the bill you are about to pass is at once 
the worst and the best on which Congress ever 
acted. Yes, sir, worst and best at the same 
time. 

" It is the worst bill, inasmuch as it is a present 
victory of slavery. In a Christian land, and in 
an age of civilization, a time-honored statute of 
freedom is struck down, opening the way to all 
the countless woes and wrongs of human bon- 
dage. Among the crimes of history, another is 
soon to be recorded, which no tears can blot out, 
and "which in better days will be read with uni- 



222 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

versal shame. . . . There is another side, to 
which I gladly turn. Sir, it is the best bill on 
which Congress ever acted,/or it annuls all past 
compromises with slavery, and makes any future 
compromises impossible. Thus it puts Freedom 
and Slavery face to face, and bids them grapple. 
Who can doubt the result? It opens wide the 
door of the Future, when, at last, there will really 
be a North, -and the slave power will be broken, 

— when their wretched despotism will cease to 
dominate over our government, no longer im- 
pressing itself upon everything at home and 
abroad. . . . Then, sir, standing at the very 
grave of Freedom in Nebraska and Kansas, I lift 
myself to the vision of that happy resurrection 
by which freedom will be assured, not only in 
these Territories, but everywhere under the 
national government. More clearly than ever 
before, I now penetrate that great Future when 
slavery must disappear. Proudly I discern the 
flag of my country, as it ripples in every breeze, 
at last, in reality as in name, the Flag of Freedom, 

— undoubted, pure, and irresistible. Am I not 
right, then, in calling this bill the best on which 
Congress ever acted ? 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 223 

" Sorrowfully I bend before the wrong you 
commit. Joyfully I welcome the promise of the 
Future." 

It was with reference to this iniquitous bill that 
Horace Mann wrote to Mr. Sumner, — 

" I cannot describe my feelings to you on the 
Nebraska Bill. I seem like one who is dragged 
by fiery devils or Douglases — it don't matter 
which — into Tophet, from which, for the next five 
hundred years, I see no escape. It is a case of 
desperation. It so encompasses me about, that 
nothing but the power and wisdom of God seems 
capable of reaching outside of it. Have you any 
hope?" 



224 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Anthony Burns. — fleeting in Faneuil Hall. — Dr. 
Howe. — Wendell PJiillips. — Tlieodore Par- 
ker. — Tlie Court House assailed. — A Man 
hilled. — Tlie Military called out. — The Ex- 
amination. — Attempt to purchase Burns. — TIig 
Trial proceeds. — Mr. Ellis and Mr. Dana. — 
Sims surrendered to his ^^ Master. ^^ — Scene in 
State Street. — Mr. Sumner^s Speech. — Re- 
monstrances against the Fugitive Slave Act. — 
3Ir. Sumner^s Life in Danger. — Lines by Mr. 
Wliittier. 

While Mr. Sumner was thus thundering at the 
slave power in the Senate, the slave power was 
busy in Boston in carrying out one part of its 
horrible programme. 

Anthony Burns, a fugitive from Virginia, had 
been in the employ of Mr. Pitts, a colored citizen 
of Boston, about three weeks, when, one evening 
— May 24, 1854 — just after closing the shop, he 
was arrested on a warrant from the United States 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 225 

Commissioner. He was taken to an upper room in 
the Court House, — now become the United States 
slave-pen, — where he was kept for the night 
under a strong guard of officers. " He seemed 
stunned and stupefied by fear." 

The next day, the 25th, he was brought before 
the commissioner for trial. Richard H. Dana, Jr., 
Charles M. Ellis, and Robert Morris volunteered 
to be his counsel. At their solicitation, the case 
was adjourned to Saturday. 

The excitement was now intense througiiout 
the city and the state, both among the abolition- 
ists and their enemies. On Friday evening an 
immense concourse of people filled Faneuil Hall, 
at the call of leading abolitionists. Among the 
officers were such men as William B. Spooner, 
Francis Jackson, Samuel G. Howe, Timothy Gil- 
bert, F. W. Bird, Rev. Mr. Grimes, and T. W. 
Higginson. 

Dr. Howe said, " Nothing so well becomes 
Faneuil Hall as the most determined resistance 
to a bloody and overshadowing despotism. It is 
the will of God that every man should be free ; 
we will as God wiUs — God's will be done. No 
man's freedom is safe unless all men are free." 
16 



226 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

Wendell Phillips said, " I am against squatter 
sovereignty in Nebraska, and against kidnapper's 
sovereignty in Boston. . . . When Burns comes 
up for trial, get a sight at him, and don't lose 
sight of him. There is nothing like the mute elo- 
quence of a suffering man to urge to duty ; be 
there, and I will trust the result." 

Theodore Parker proposed that, when the 
meeting adjourn, it do so to meet in Court Square 
the next morning at nine o'clock. " It was in 
the people's power so to block up every avenue 
that the man could not be carried off." 

Mr. Parker and Mr. Phillips counselled no at- 
tempt at a rescue till the next day. 

But, it being reported that a company of col- 
ored persons were attempting Burns's rescue in 
Court Square, most of the audience made their 
way to that place. The Court House was being 
vigorously assaulted, and a door was battered 
down, while the cry arose, " Rescue him ! " 
" Bring him out ! " During the melee a man 
named Batchelder, who had volunteered in be- 
half of the Fugitive Slave Act, was killed. 

The police being found unequal to the emer- 
gency, the authorities ordered out two companies 
of artillery, who arrived at midnight. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 227 

The next morning, two corps of United States 
Marines were quartered within the walls of the 
Court House. Three city companies received or- 
ders from the major general of the State militia 
to be in readiness. 

Saturday morning the examination was re- 
sumed. The prisoner was brought in under 
strong guard. His counsel urged further delay, 
which was granted. 

Meanwhile the friends of Burns sought his lib- 
eration by purchase, and twelve hundred dollars, 
the price demanded by Suttle, were placed in the 
hands of Rev. Mr. Grimes, pastor of the Second 
Colored Baptist Church. So confident were they 
of success, that on Sunday morning a carriage 
was at the door of the Court House, to take 
Burns away. But it was decided to detain him 
till the next day. Suttle afterwards refused to 
seU. 

Suijday was an anxious day in Boston. Theo- 
dore Parker, in Music Hall, said, " I understand 
there are one hundred and eighty-four marines 
lodged in the Court House, every man of them 
furnished with a musket and a bayonet, with his 
side-arms and twenty-four ball cartridges. . . . 



228 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Look at Boston to-day. There are no chains 
around your Court House — there are ropes 
around it. A hundred and eighty-four United 
States soldiers are there. They are, I am told, 
mostly foreigners — the scum of the earth." 

On Monday, the 29th, the trial was renewed. 
Mr. Ellis made the opening argument. Address- 
ing the commissioner, he said, — 

" Sir, you sit here judge and jury betwixt 
that man and slavery. Without a commission, 
without any accountability, without any right of 
challenge, you sit to render a judgment, which, if 
against him, no tribunal can review and no court 
reverse." 

Referring to the claimants, he said, " I wish 
to look the men in the eye who dare to come here, 
with pistols in their pockets, to ask us to meet a 
case with our opposing counsel armed, hemmed 
in with armed men, entering court with muskets 
at our breasts, trying a case under the muzzles of 
their guns. I choose to ask these men, face to 
face, by what show of right they speak of law 
find justice." 

On Wednesday, Mr. Dana made his argument 
in the defence. It is worthy of note that Joshua 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 229 

R. Giddings, member of Congress from Ohio, an 
indomitable champion of freedom, was among the 
spectators. 

Mr. Dana made a sarcastic reference to the 
remarkable peace enjoyed in Boston since the 
arrest of Burns, because of the posse of specials, 
gathered from the purlieus of the city by the 
marshal : — 

" Why, sir, people have not felt it necessary to 
lock their doors at night ; the brothels are ten- 
anted only by women ; fighting-dogs and racing- 
horses have been unemployed, and Ann Street 
and its alleys and cellars show signs of a coming 
millennium." 

Alluding to the statement made by Brent, a 
witness from Virginia, that Burns had expressed 
a willingness to return with Suttle, Mr. Dana 
said, — 

'' If he was willing to go back, why did they 
not send to Pitts's shop, and tell the prisoner that 
Colonel Suttle was at the Revere House, and 
would give him an opportunity to return ? No, 
sir, they lurked about the thievish corners of the 
streets, and measured his height and his s^sars, to 
see if they answered to the record, and seized 



230 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

him by fraud and violence, six men of ubem, and 
hurried him into bonds and imprisonment. Some 
one hundred hired men, armed, keep him in this 
room, where once Story sat in judgment — now a 
slave-pen. One hundred and fifty bayonets of 
the regulars, and fifteen hundred of the militia, 
keep him without. If all that we see about us is 
necessary to keep a man who is willing to go 
back, pray, sir, what shall we see when they 
shall get hold of a man who is not willing to go 
back?" 

In conclusion, he said to the commissioner, 
" You recognized, sir, in the beginning, the pre- 
sumption of freedom. Hold to it now, sir, as to 
the sheet-anchor of your peace of mind as well 
as of his safety. If you commit a mistake in 
favor of the man, a pecuniary value, not great, is 
put at hazard. If against him, a free man is 
made a slave forever. If you have, on the evi- 
dence or on the law, the doubt of a reasoning and 
reasonable mind, an intelligent misgiving, then, 
sir, I implore you, in view of the cruel character 
of this law, in view of the dreadful consequences 
of a mistake, send him not away, with that tor- 
menting doubt in your mind. It may turn to a 
torturing certainty." 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 231 

" The . eyes of many millions are upon you, sir. 
You are to do an act which will hold its place in 
the history of America, in the history of the 
progress of the human race. May your judg- 
ment be for liberty, and not for slavery ; for hap- 
piness, and not for wretchedness ; for hope and 
not for despair ; and may be the blessing of him 
that is ready to perish may come upon you." 

The commissioner decided that Burns was 
the slave of Suttle, and should be given up to 
his " master." 

It was now June 2, ten days since the arrest. 
Burns was to be taken, that day, on board the 
steamer Jane Taylor. " The police cleared the 
square, and guarded the entrances. Early in the 
morning, a detachment of United States artillery 
marched up State Street with a field-piece from 
the Navy Yard, which was* planted in Court 
Square. Several companies of the State militia 
were in readiness." 

From different oflSces in the vicinity of the 
Court House there were exhibited " signs of 
woe." Among the most conspicuous mourners 
at the tragic scene was John A. Andrew, after- 
wards the " war governor " of Massachusetts, 



232 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

always an ardent friend of Charles Sumner. The 
windows of his office were festooned in black. 

After ten o'clock in the morning, the stores 
on State Street were closed, and all business 
suspended. The excitement was intense. The 
streets in the vicinity were crowded with peo- 
ple, thousands having come from neighboring 
towns, all anxious to witness the last act of the 
tragedy. From the Court House away down 
State Street, a passage for the officers oi justice 
with their unfortunate victim, was guarded by 
troops. 

At length the melancholy procession began. 
It passed down the street towards Long Wharf. 
A rescue was impossible. Among the throng 
who gazed upon the innocent victim, and upon 
the armed men who were there to prevent his 
escape, there prevailed, for the most part^ the 
silence of a smothered indignation — an indig- 
nation which, from that hour, with very many, 
was to take the shape of active and deadly oppo- 
sition to slavery. Mr. Sumner's powerful words 
in Congress were feeble in comparison with the 
mute eloquence of that horrid scene. 

What Mr. Sumner thought of it may be 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 233 

learned from a speech, about three months after 
its occurrence, before the Republican State Con- 
vention at Worcester. 

" Contemporaneously with the final triumph 
of this outrage at Washington, another dismal 
tragedy was enacted at Boston. In those streets 
where he had walked as freeman, Anthony Burns 
was seized as slave, under the base pretext that 
he was a criminal, imprisoned in the Court 
House, which was turned for the time into 
fortress and barracoon, guarded by heartless 
hirelings, whose chief idea of liberty was li- 
cense to wrong, escorted by intrusive soldiers 
of the United States, watched by a prostituted 
militia, and finally given up to a slave-hunter 
by the decree of a petty magistrate, who did 
not hesitate to take upon his soul the awful 
responsibility of dooming a fellow-man, in whom 
he could find no fault, to a fate worse than death. 

" How all this was accomplished I need not 
now relate. Suffice it to say, that, in doing this 
deed of woe and shame, the liberties of all our 
citizens, white as well as black, were put in jeop- 
ardy ; the mayor of Boston was converted to a 
tool, the governor of the Commonwealth to a 



234 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

cipher, the laws, the precious sentiments, the re- 
ligion, the pride and glory of Massachusetts, were 
trampled in the dust, and you and I and all of 
us fell down, while the slave power flourished 
over us." 

This case, says Mr. Greeley, " probably excited 
more feeling than that of any other alleged 
fugitive, in that it attained unusual publicity, 
and took place in New England after the North 
had begun to feel the first throbs of the profound 
agitation excited by the repudiation of the Mis- 
souri Compropiise." 

In Washington it awakened the deepest feel- 
ing, and intensified the hostility to Mr. Sumner. 
The death of Batchelder was falsely attributed 
to his speech of the 24th. Pro-slavery papers 
in Washington published the most insulting and 
inflammatory articles against him, and his life was 
in imminent peril. His friends advised him to 
leave the city ; but he would not abandon his 
post, nor arm himself, nor cease his daily walk to 
and from the Capitol. 

Letters came in from difierent parts of the 
country, especially from New England, express- 
ing profound sympathy or profibring protection. 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 235 

Mr. Sumner was grateful for the former,, but 
invariably declined the latter. He knew no fear. 
He was doing his duty. God was his defence. 

Massachusetts had sent a man back to slavery. 
Yet not Massachusetts. The act did not repre- 
sent her real spirit. That soon appeared in an 
aroused and indignant public sentiment. Dur- 
ing the very month in which Burns was returned 
to slavery, a petition, with twenty-nine hundred 
signatures, was forwarded to Congress, praying 
for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Bill. 

Speaking on the petition, Mr. Sumner said, 
with reference to himself, as having vehemently 
opposed this bill, '' For all that I have thus 
uttered I have no regret or apology, but rather 
joy and satisfaction. Glad I am in having said 
it ; glad I am now in the opportunity of affirming 
it all anewy 

He further said, " It is true that the Slave Act 
was with difficulty executed, and that one of its 
servants perished in the madness. On these 
grounds the senator from Tennessee charges 
Boston with fanaticism. I express no opinion 
on the conduct of individuals ; but I do say, 
that the fanaticism which the senator condemns 



236 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

is not new in Boston. It is the same which op- 
posed the execution of the Stamp Act. and finally 
secured its repeal. It is the same which re- 
pealed the Tea Tax. It is the fanaticism which 
finally triumphed on Bunker Hill. The senator 
says that Boston is filled with traitors. That 
charge is not new. Boston of old was the home 
of Hancock and Adams. Her traitors now are 
those who are truly animated by the spirit of the 
American Revolution. In condemning them, in 
condemning Massachusetts, in condemning these 
remonstrants, you simply give proper conclusion 
to the utterance on this floor, that the Declara- 
tion of Independence is a ' self-evident lie.' " 

This was June 26, twenty-four days after the 
rendition of Burns. On the 28th Mr. Sumner re- 
plied to his assailants ; for his speech on the peti- 
tion had been assailed with brutal and vulgar 
violence. Better for them had they let him alone. 
They roused a lion. 

"I think," said he, referring to Mr. Butler, 
from South Carolina, and Mr. Mason, from Vir- 
ginia, who had been particularly virulent and 
abusive, — " I think that I am not the only person 
on this floor, who, listening to these two self- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 237 

confident champions of that peculiar fanaticism 
of the South, was reminded of the striking words 
of Jefferson, picturing the influence of slavery, 
when he says, — 

" ' The whole commerce between master and 
slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boister- 
ous passions, — the most unremitting despotism 
on the one part, and degrading submission on the 
other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate 
it ; for man is an imitative animal. . . . The parent 
storms. The child looks on, catches the linea- 
ments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle 
of smaller slaves, gives a loose rein to the worst 
of passions, and, thus nursed, educated, and duly 
exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by 
it with odious peculiarities. Tlie man must he a 
-prodigy who can retain Ms manners and morals 
undepraved by such circumstances.^ 

'' Nobody, who witnessed the senator from South 
Carolina or the senator from Virginia in this de- 
bate, will place either of them among the prodi- 
gies described by Jefferson. As they spoke, the 
Senate Chamber must have seemed to them, in 
the characteristic fantasy of the moment, a planta- 
tion well-stocked with slaves, over which the lash 
of the overseer had free swino-. 



238 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

" Sir, it gives me no pleasure to say these 
things. It is not according to my nature. Bear 
witness that I do it only in just self-defence against 
the unprecedented assaults and provocations of 
this debate. In doing it I desire to warn certain 
senators, that if, by any ardor of menace, or by 
any tyrannical frown, they expect to shake my 
fixed resolve, they expect a vain thing." 

Verily, Massachusetts was not now exposing 
herself to the humiliating rebuke which a slave- 
holding representative, twenty-eight years be- 
fore, administered to a member of the House 
from that state, who had said of slavery, that 
" while it subsists, ivliere it subsists, its duties are 
presupposed and sanctioned by religion." A 
new era had come. Courage had succeeded to 
cringing, conscience to complaisance. So was it 
with Massachusetts. 

But with the South, her better days were 
passed. She was the slave of slavery. She was 
afraid of the light. She could not endure argu- 
ments. Her defence of herself was abuse and the 
bludgeon. Surely so terrible a disease called for 
a sharp remedy. A true Daniel had now come 
to judgment. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 239 

Mr. Sumner's reply was thorough and un- 
answerable. And this made it the more offen- 
sive to Southern ears. It was therefore seriously 
proposed among Southern members to expel him 
from the Senate. One member said he was 
a fit candidate for jail, another for a strait- 
jacket. "He was assailed/' said Mr. Giddings, 
referring to the speeches of June 26 and 28, " by 
the whole slave power in the Senate, and for a 
time he was the constant theme of their vituper- 
ation. The maddened waves rolled and dashed 
against him for two or three days, until eventual- 
ly he obtained the floor himself Then he arose 
and threw back the dashing surges with a power 
of inimitable eloquence utterly indescribable. 
. . . There he stood towering above the infa- 
mous characters who had attempted to silence 
him, while I sat and listened with rapturous emo- 
tion." 

As the hatred, on the one hand, was bitter, so, 
on the other, the congratulations of his friends, 
the friends of freedom and free speech, came in 
to Mr. Sumner from every quarter. His boldness 
toned up the public conscience, and gave new 
strength and courage to every friend of free- 
dom. 



240 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

Not discomfited by the raging storm, Mr. 
Sumner returned to the onset against the Fugi- 
tive Slave Bill a month later, July 31. It was in 
this wise. Mr. Seward having " reported a bill 
for the relief of a poor and aged woman, whose 
husband had died of wounds received in the war 
of 1812, Mr. Adams, of Mississippi, moved, as an 
amendment, another bill for the relief of Mrs. 
Batchelder, widow of a person killed in Boston, 
while aiding as a volunteer in the enforcement 
of the Fugitive Slave Act." The amendment 
being adopted, Mr. Sumner introduced the fol- 
lowing amendment : " Provided, That the Act of 
Congress, approved September 18, 1850, for the 
surrender of fugitives from service or labor, be, 
and the same is hereby, repealed." An exciting 
debate ensued, and the Senate refused leave to 
introduce the bill — ten to thirty-five. 

It was with reference to this debate that Mr. 
Whittier, an ardent and intimate friend of Mr. 
Sumner, wrote the following lines : — 

" Thou knowest my heart, dear friend, and well canst guess, 
That, even though silent, I have not the less 
Rejoiced to see thy actual life agree 
With the large future which I shaped for thee, 
When, years ago, beside the summer sea. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNEE. 241 

"White in the moon, we saw the long waves fall 

Baffled and broken from the rocky wall. 

That to the menace of the brawling flood 

Opposed alone its massive quietude, 

Calm as a fate, with not a leaf nor vine 

Nor birch-spray trembling in the still moonshine. 

Crowning it like God's peace. I sometimes think 

That night-scene by the sea prophetical 

(For Nature speaks in symbols and in signs. 

And through her pictures human fate divines), — 

That rock, wherefrom we saw the billows sink 

In murmuring rout, uprising clear and tall 

In the white light of heaven, the type of one 

Who, momently by Error's host assailed. 

Stands strong as Truth, in greaves of granite mailed. 

And, tranquil-fronted, listening over all 

The tumult, hears the angels say, Well done ! " 

16 



242 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Hise of the Bepuhlican Party. — Great Changes. 

— Freedom gaining Ground. — Republican 
Convention. — Mr. Sumner^ s Speech. — Duties 
of Massachusetts. — The Supreme Court and 
the Fugitive Slave Act. — Judges. — Letter to 
Agricultural Society. — Mercantile Library Asso- 
ciation. — " Position and Duties of the Mer- 
chant.^^ — Granville Sharp. — Seamen^s Wages. 

— Fugitive Slave Bill. 

The party of Freedom, which had successively 
borne the names of Liberty Party and Free Soil 
Party, now assumed that of Republican. Its 
first convention, under this new designation, was 
held at Worcester, September 7, 1854. 

Ten years had wrought a mighty change. 
The slave power was still in the ascendant, and 
resolved, by whatever means, to retain its su- 
premacy. It had humiliated the North, and 
dragged away in triumph from its towns and 



LIFE OF CHABLES SUMNER. 243 

cities numerous fugitives. It still domineered in 
the National Congress. It held all the National 
offices. It controlled the army, the navy, and 
the judiciary. 

But its excessive fury had at last aroused the 
slumbering North. Freedom had compelled a 
hearing in the National Council. Champions of 
her cause had at length appeared who could not 
be cajoled or intimidated. Slavery, though 
haughty and defiant, was filled with new alarm. 

Under such circumstances, the first Republican 
Convention came together. Its members were 
inspired with strong hopes. A great future was 
before the party of Freedom. 

Mr. Sumner was invited to be present, and 
was welcomed with unbounded joy. He had 
" fought with wild beasts " at Washington, and 
won the gratitude of all the friends of Freedom. 

Addressing the Convention, he said, — 

" After months of constant, anxious service in 
another place, away from Massachusetts, I am 
permitted to stand among you again, my fellow- 
citizens, and to draw satisfaction and strength 
from your generous presence. Life is full of 
change and contrast. From Slave Soil I have 



244 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

come to Free Soil. From the tainted breath of 
Slavery I have passed into the bracing air of 
Freedom. And the heated antagonism of debate, 
shooting forth its fiery cinders, is changed into 
this brimming, overflowing welcome, while I 
seem to lean on the great heart of our beloved 
Commonwealth, as it palpitates audibly in this 
crowded assembly. 

" Let me say at once, frankly and sincerely, that 
I am not here to receive applause or to give oc- 
casion for tokens of public regard, but simply to 
unite with fellow- citizens in new vows of duty. 
And yet I would not be thought insensible to the 
good-will now swelling from so many honest 
bosoms. It touches me more than I can tell." 

He then proceeded to show what were '* the 
duties of Massachusetts at the present crisis." 

" Our duties in National and State affairs are 
identical, — in the one case to put the National 
Government, in all its departments, and in the 
other case, the State Government, in all its de- 
partments, openly, actively, and perpetually, on 
the side of Freedom." 

Speaking of the Slave Oligarchy, he said, 
" Lord Chatham once exclaimed, that the time 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 245 

had been, when he was content to bring France 
to her knees ; now he would not stop till he had 
laid her on her back. Nor can we be content 
with less in our warfare. We must not stop till 
we have laid the Slave Power on its back" 

Referring to the decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, affirming the consti- 
tutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act, and to the 
alleged consequent duty of absolute submission, 
Mr. Sumner said, — 

"For myself, let me say, that I hold judges, 
and especially the Supreme Court, in much re- 
spect ; but I am too familiar with the history of 
judicial proceedings to regard them with any 
superstitious reverence. Judges are but men, 
and in all ages have shown a full share of human 
frailty. 

" Alas ! alas 1 the worst crimes of history have 
been perpetrated under their sanction. The 
blood of martyrs and of patriots, crying from the 
ground, summons them to judgment. 

" It was a judicial tribunal which condemned 
Socrates to drink the fatal hemlock, and which 
pushed the Saviour barefoot over the pavements 
of Jerusalem, bending beneath his cross. 



246 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

" It was a judicial tribunal which, against the 
testimony and entreaties of her father, surrendered 
the fair Virginia as a slave, — which arrested the 
teachings of the great Apostle to the G-entiles, and 
sent him in bonds from Judea to Rome, — which, 
in the name of the old religion, persecuted the 
saints and fathers of the Christian Church, and 
adjudged them to a martyr's death, in all its most 
dreadful forms, — and afterwards, in the name of 
the new religion, enforced the tortures of the In- 
quisition, amidst the shrieks and agonies of its 
victims, while it compelled Galileo to declare, in 
solemn denial of the great truth he had disclosed, 
that the earth did not move round the sun. 

" Ay, sir, it was a judicial tribunal in England 
which . . . lighted the fires of persecution at 
Oxford and Smithfield, over the cinders of Lati- 
mer, Ridley, and John Rogers, — which, after 
elaborate argument, upheld the fatal tyranny of 
ship-money against the patriot resistance of 
Hampden, — which, in defiance of justice anc' 
humanity, sent Sidney and Russell to the block 
— which persistently enforced the laws of Con 
formity that our Puritan fathers persistently re 
fused to obey, and afterwards, with Jefiries on 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 247 

the bench, crowned the pages of English history 
with massacre and murder, even with the blood 
of innocent women. 

" Ay, sir, it was a judicial tribunal in our own 
country, surrounded by all the forms of law, 
which hung witches at Salem, — which affirmed 
the constitutionality of the Stamp Act, while it 
admonished jurors and people to obey, — and 
which now, in onr day, lends its sanction to the 
unutterable atrocity of the Fugitive Slave Act." 

Mr. Sumner believed that he was bound to obey 
the Constitution as lie understood it, and not as he 
did not understand it ! He believed the Fugi- 
tive Slave Act to be unconstitutional, and there- 
fore he did not regard it as binding upon him. 
It was against the divine law, and he would obey 
God rather than man. He would disobey the 
human law, and take the consequences, whatever 
they might be. " The good citizen, at all per- 
sonal hazard, will refuse to obey it." 

On the 25th of the same month, Mr. Sumner 
sent a characteristic letter to the Norfolk Agri- 
cultural Society, giving his reasons for not ac- 
cepting an invitation to attend : — 

" From the mother earth we may derive many 



248 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

lessons, and I doubt not they will spring up abun- 
dantly in the footprints of the Society, There is 
one which comes to my mind at this moment, and 
which is of perpetual force. 

" The good farmer obeys the natural laws, nor 
does he impotently attempt to set up any behest 
of man against the ordinances of God, determin- 
ing day and night, summer and winter, sunshine 
and rain. The good citizen will imitate the good 
farmer, nor will he impotently attempt to set up 
any statutes of man against the ordinances of 
God, which determine good and evil, right and 
wrong, justice and injustice." An ingenious ar- 
gument against the Fugitive Slave Act. 

On November 13, he addressed the Mercantile 
Library Association of Boston on the " Position 
and Duties of the Merchant, as illustrated in the 
Life of Granville Sharp." 

This oration marks a great change in public 
opinion on the subject of slavery. When, seven 
years before, he addressed the Association, he 
called his lecture " an attempt to expose slavery 
before a promiscuous audience, at a time when 
the subject was too delicate to he treated directly.'' 
Then he spoke of '' white slavery in the Barbary 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 249 

States." Now he could speak directly of negro 
slavery in the United States, and be " well re- 
ceived." He could even rebuke merchants of 
Boston who had not only aided, but, in some 
cases, instigated the arrest and rendition of Sims 
and Burns. 

Granville Sharp, a London merchant, born in 
1735, was held up as a model business man, and, 
above all, as a man: a man who carried his con- 
science into trade, but never made a trade of con- 
science ; who was more than a successful merchanj:, 
a philanthropist of the purest character, a special 
foe to slavery, ^^ heralding by many years the la- 
bors of Clarkson and Wilberforce." He boldly 
assailed the slave-trade, and slavery itself He 
labored to prove that slavery could not exist un- 
der the British Constitution. Cases of slaves 
arrested in England by foreign masters had awa- 
kened his sympathies. Though often balked, he 
never rested till the Chief Justice of England at 
length declared, that the moment a slave touched 
British soil he became free. 

" Imitating him," said Mr. Sumner, in conclu- 
sion, " commerce would thrive none the less, but 
goodness more. Business would not be checked, 



250 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

but it would cease to be pursued as the ' one idea ' 
of life. Wealth would still abound ; but there 
would be also that solid virtue, never to be 
moved from truth. . . . 

" The hardness of heart engendered by the 
accursed greed of gain, and by the madness 
of worldly ambition, would be overcome ; the 
perverted practice, that policy is the best honesty, 
would be reversed ; and merchants would be 
recalled, gently, but irresistibly, to the great 
practical duties of this age, and thus win the 
palm of true honesty, which trade alone can 
never bestow. 

'Who is the honest man ? 
He that doth still and strongly good pursue, 
To God, his neighbor, and himself, most true.' " 

Thus, on all occasions, addressing young men, 
merchants, scholars, politicians, in the lyceum, 
at literary festivals, in conventions of the people, 
in the Senate, everywhere that he could get- the 
ear of his fellow-men, Mr. Sumner held up the 
same high standard of right and truth, the au- 
thority of conscience, the will of God. 

Eeturning to Congress, he introduced a bill, 
F(jbruary 12, 1855, "to secure wages to seamen 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 251 

in case of wreck." '' The measure now pro- 
posed," he said, " is of direct importance to 
the one hundred and fifty thousand seamen con- 
stituting the mercantile marine of the United 
States. It also concerns the million of men con- 
stituting the mercantile marine of the civilized 
world, any of whom, in the vicissitudes of the 
sea, may find themselves in American bottoms. 
I commend it as a measure of enlightened phi- 
lanthropy, and also of simple justice." 

His motion to refer it to the Committee on 
Commerce was agreed to. Southern as well 
as Northern senators could do justice to sea- 
men, in making secure their hard-earned wages ; 
but not yet did the former heed the warning, 
'' Woe unto him that useth his neighbor's ser- 
vice without wages, and giveth hiin not for his 
work." 

On the 23d of the same month, another oppor- 
tunity was given Mr. Sumner to demand the 
repeal of the Fugitive Slave Bill. It was on 
a motion of Mr. Toucey, of Connecticut, (!) to 
remove " cases arising from trespasses and dam- 
ages under the Fugitive Slave Act," from the 
State Courts to the Circuit Court of the United. 



252 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

States. The purpose of the mover, " a Northern 
man with Southern principles," was to give 
more efficiency to the Fugitive Slave Act. 

On this Mr. Sumner said, — 

" On a former occasion, as slavery was about to 
clutch one of its triumphs, I rose to make my 
final opposition at midnight. It is now the 
same hour. Slavery is pressing again for its 
accustomed victory, which I undertake again 
for the moment to arrest. It is hardly an acci- 
dental conjunction which constantly brings sla- 
very and midnight together. . . . 

" I do not adequately expose this bill, when 
I say it is a sacrifice to slavery. It is a 
sacrifice to slavery in its most odious form. 
Bad as slavery is, it is not so bad as hunting 
slaves. There is seeming apology for slavery 
at home, in States where it prevails, founded 
on difficulties in the position of the master, and 
the relations of personal attachment it some- 
times excites ; but every apology fails when 
you seek again to enslave the fugitive whom 
the master cannot detain by duress or kindness, 
and who, by courage and intelligence, under 
guidance of the North Star, can achieve a happy 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 253 

freedom. Sir, there is a wide difference between 
slave-holder and slave-hunter. 

" But the bill before you is to aid in the chase 
of slaves. . . . Not from Slave Soil, but from 
Free Soil, comes this effort. A senator from 
the North, a senator from New England, lends 
himself to the work, and with unnatural zeal 
helps to bind still stronger the fetter of the 
slave." 

To the inquiry of Mr. Rusk, of Texas, where 
slavery was mentioned in the bill, Mr. Sumner 
ingeniously replied, " I might ask the senator to 
point out any place in the Constitution of the 
United States where ' slavery ' is mentioned." 

After earnest denunciation of the Fugitive 
Slave Bill, he moved its repeal, with the follow- 
ing result: ayes 9, nays 30. The nine were 
Messrs. Brainerd, Chase, Cooper, Fessenden, Gil- 
lette, Seward, Sumner, Wade, and Wilson. 

And so ended one more effort for freedom. 



254 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Lecture before the Mercantile Library Association. 
— " The Anil- Slavery Enterprise. " — Opposition 
to Truth. — The first to welcome Truth. — Mr, 
Hayes. — Dignity of the Cause of Freedom. — 
— A work for Every One. — Meeting at Fan- 
euil Hall. — The Rip Van Winkle Party. — 
The Know Nothing Party. 

" Hancock Street, 23c1 November, 1856. 

" My dear Sir : An unkindly current of air 
is often more penetrating than an arrow. From 
sucli a shaft I suifered on the night of my address 
to the Mercantile Library Association, more than 
a week ago, and no care or skill has been effica- 
cious to relieve me." 

This forms part of a letter of excuse from Mr. 
Sumner for not delivering a lecture — the first of 
a course organized in Boston for the discussion 
of slavery. Mr. Sumner was silenced. A " cur- 
rent of air " had effected what the acts and 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 255 

threats of slaveholders had failed to do. But 
kindly Nature ere long relented, and released him 
from her bonds. He returned to his seat in the 
Senate. 

The following spring, in 1855, Mr. Sumner 
gave the lecture referred to above — " The Anti- 
Slavery Enterprise: Its Necessity, Practicabil- 
ity, and Dignity." It awakened so much inter- 
est, that its repetition was requested in Boston, 
and in many places in New York. Its suc- 
cessive delivery in Metropolitan Hall and Niblo's 
Theatre, New York, and in Brooklyn, forms an 
era in the anti-slavery cause. Said the New 
York Tribune, " That a lecture should be repeat- 
ed in New York is a rare occurrence. That a 
lecture on anti-slavery should be repeated in 
New York, even before a few despised fanatics, 
is an unparalleled occurrence. But that an anti- 
slavery lecture should be repeated, night after 
night, to successive multitudes, each more enthu- 
siastic than the last, marks the epoch of a revolu- 
tion in popular feeling ; it is an era in the history 
of Liberty." 

In the beginning of this speech, which was 
three hours long, Mr. Sumner briefly sketched 



256 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

the rapid progress of anti- slavery sentiment. 
Referring to the opposition which it had met with, 
he said, " Thus, in all ages, is truth encountered. 
At first persecuted, gagged, silenced, cruci- 
fied, she cries out from the prison, the rack, the 
stake, the cross, till at last her voice is heard. 
And when that voice is really heard, whether in 
martyr cries, or in earthquake tones of civil con- 
vulsion, or in the calmness of ordinary speech, 
such as I now employ, or in that still, small 
utterance inaudible to the common ear, then is 
the beginning of victory ! ' Give me where to 
stand, and I will move the world,' said Archi- 
medes ; and truth asks no more than did the 
master of geometry. 

'' Viewed in this aspect, the present occasion 
rises above any ordinary course of lectures or 
series of political meetings. It is the inaugura- 
tion of Freedom. From this time forward, her 
voice of warning and command cannot be si- 
lenced." 

Speaking of the objection to the anti-slavery 
enterprise, that it " lacked the authority of names 
eminent in Church and State," Mr. Sumner said, 
"If this be so, the more is the pity on their 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 257 

account ; for our cause is needful to them more 
than they are needful to our cause. Alas ! it is 
only according to example that it should be so. 
It is not the eminent in Church and State, the 
rich and powerful, the favorites of fortune and 
of place, who most promptly welcome Truth, 
when she heralds change in the existing order of 
things. It is others in poorer condition who open 
hospitable hearts to the unattended stranger. 
This is a sad story, beginning with the Saviour, 
whose disciples were fishermen, and ending only 
in our day." 

•' There is now in Boston a simple citizen whose 
example may be a lesson to Commissioners, 
Marshals, Magistrates, while it fills all with 
the beauty of a generous act. I refer to Mr. 
Hayes, who resigned his place in the city police, 
rather than take part in the pack of the Slave- 
hunter. He is now the doorkeeper of the public 
edifice honored this winter by the triumphant 
lectures on slavery. Better be a doorkeeper in 
the house of the Lord than a dweller in the tents 
of the ungodly. Has he not chosen well ? Little 
think those now doing the work of slavery, that 
the time is near when all this will be dishonor 
17 



258 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

and sadness. For myself, long ago my mind was 
made up. Nothing will I have to do with it. 
How can I help to make a slave ? The idea 
alone is painful. To do this thing would plant 
in my soul a remorse which no time could 
remove or mitigate. His chains would clank in 
my ears. His cries would strike upon my heart. 
His voice would be my terrible accuser. Mr. 
President, may no such voice fall on your soul 
or mine ! " 

Of the dignity of the enterprise he thus dis- 
coursed : — 

" It concerns the cause of human freedom, 
which from earliest days has been the darling 
of History. By all the memories of the past, 
by all the stories of childhood and the studies of 
youth, by every example of magnanimous virtue, 
by every aspiration of the good and true, by the 
fame of martyrs swelling through all time, by the 
renown of patriots whose lives are landmarks of 
progress, by the praise lavished upon our fathers, 
you are summoned to this work. . . . Who can 
doubt that our cause is nobler than that of our 
fathers ? for is it not more exalted to struggle/or 
the freedom of others than for our own ? " 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 259 

Speaking of the practicability of the enter- 
prise, he said there was a place for every man. 
'' Providence is felt through individuals ; the 
dropping of water wears away the rock ; ' and 
no man can be too humble or poor for this work, 
while to all the happy in genius,- fortune, or fame, 
it makes a special appeal. Here is room for the 
strength of Luther and the sweetness of Me- 
lancthon ; for the wisdom of age and the ardor 
of youth ; for the judgment of the statesman and 
the eloquence of the orator ; for the grace of the 
scholar and the inspiration of the poet ; for the 
learning of the professor and the skill of the law- 
yer ; for the exhortation of the preacher and the 
persuasion of the press ; for the various energy 
of man and the abounding sympathy of woman." 

At a Republican rally in Faneuil Hall, No- 
vember 2, 1855, on the eva of an election^ Mr. 
Sumner spoke for two hours and a quarter, show- 
ing that the Republican party alone represented 
the principles of Freedom and the Constitution. 
His speech began with these stirring words : — 

" Are you for Freedom, or are you for Slavery ? 
This is the question which you are to answer at 
the coming election. Above all other questions, 



260 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNEB. 

national or local, it lifts itself directly in the path 
of every voter. There it is. It cannot be avoid- 
ed. It cannot be banished away. It cannot be 
silenced. Forever sounding in our ears, it has 
a mood for every hour, — stirring us at times as 
with the blast of a trumpet, then visiting us in 
solemn tones, like the bell which calls to prayer, 
and then again awaking us to unmistakable duty, 
like the same bell, when at midnight it sum- 
mons all to stay the raging conflagration." 

Tried by this test, the Democratic and Whig 
parties were utterly wanting; so also was the 
Know Nothing or Anti-forejgn party. " Men 
do not gather grapes from thorns, nor figs from 
thistles ; nor do they expect patriotism from 
Benedict Arnold," The Democratic party sus- 
tained " the tyrannies and perfidies of the slave 
oligarchy." The Whig party was thus hand- 
somely disposed of: — 

" According to familiar rule, handed down 
from distant antiquity, we are to say nothing 
but good of the dead. How, then, shall I speak 
of the late powerful Whig party, by whose giant 
contests the whole country was once upheaved, 
but which has now ceased to exist, except aa 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 261 

the shadow of a name ? Here in Massachusetts, 
a few who do not yet know that it is dead have 
met together and professed the old allegiance. 
They are the Eip Van Winkles of our politics. 
This respectable character, falling asleep in the 
mountains, drowsed undisturbed throughout the 
war of the revolution, and then, returning to his 
native village, ignorant of all that had passed, 
made haste to declare himself ' a loyal subject 
of the king, God bless him ! ' But our Whigs 
are less tolerant and urbane than this awakened 
sleeper. In petulant and irrational assumption 
they are like the unfortunate judge, who, being 
aroused from slumber on the bench by a sudden 
crash of thunder, exclaimed, ' Mr. Crier, stop the 
noise in court ! ' The thunder would not be 
hushed ; nor will the voice of Freedom, now re- 
verberating throughout the land." 

Speaking of the so-called American party, Mr. 
Sumner uttered a plea for our foreign population. 
It should not be politically proscribed. Roman 
Catholics should " give some assurance of their 
purpose ... to become useful, loyal, and per- 
manent members of our community," With this 
explanation he would extend generous welcome 



262 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

to foreigners. " The history of our country, in 
its humblest as well as most exalted spheres, tes- 
tifies to the merits of foreigners. Their strong 
arms have helped furrow our broad territory 
with canals, and stretch in every direction the 
iron rail. They fill our workshops, navigate our 
ships, and even till our fields. ... At the bar 
and in the high places of commerce you find 
them ; enter the retreats of learning, and there 
you find them, shedding upon our country the 
glory of science. 

"■ A party, then, which, beginning in secrecy, 
interferes with religious belief, and founds a 
discrimination on the accident of birth, is not the 
party for us." 

And so Mr. Sumner proved the necessity of 
the Republican party. " * Where liberty is, 
there is my country,' was the sentiment of that 
great apostle of freedom, Benjamin Franklin. 
... In a similar strain, I would say, ' Where 
liberty is, there is my party.' " 

That party has gained for itself a most honor- 
able name. Under God, it abolished slavery, it 
saved the nation. Its more recent history we 
pass by in silence. 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 263 



CHAPTER XX. 

Growing arrogance of the Slave Power. — ^e- 
brasJca and Kansas. — Violence in Washington. 
— Mr. Sumner^ s Speech, " The Crime against 
Kansas.'^ — Question of Admitting Kansas as a 
State. — Douglases Bill. — Letters to Theodore 
Parker. — 3Ir. Seward's Bill. — A Great De- 
bate. — TJie Monster Swindle. — Emigration 
to Kansas. — Border Riiffians. — A Usurping 
Legislature. — Slave Legislation. — Senator 
Butler and South Ca7'oli7ia. 

We have now reached a period when the 
slavery question was fast hastening to a dread- 
ful crisis. The Nebraska Bill had revealed in 
unmistakable colors the daring and desperate 
character of the slave power, Kansas had be- 
come the theatre of a deadly strife. '^ The bor- 
der ruffian policy/' says Vice-President Wilson, 
" which was filling that Territory with alarm and 
bloodshed, had its representatives in Washington, 
walking its streets, hanging around its hotels, and 



264 LIFE OP -CHARLES SUMNER. 

stalking through the Capitol. To the extreme 
arrogance of embittered and aggressive words 
were added the menace and actual infliction of 
personal violence. Indeed, the course of these 
men assumed the form of a reckless and relent- 
less audacity never before exhibited. Members 
of Congress went armed in the streets, and sat 
with loaded revolvers in their desks." It should 
be added, that Mr. Sumner always went un- 
armed. 

Under such peculiar circumstances it was, that 
Mr. Sumner delivered, on May 19 and 20, 1856, his 
speech entitled The Grime Against Kansas ; The 
Apologies f 07^ the Crime; The True Remedy. 

By the Nebraska Bill, passed in 1854, the Mis- 
souri Compromise of 1820, prohibiting slavery 
north of 36° 30' north latitude, was violated, and 
the vast region known as Kansas and Nebraska, 
as also Minnesota, Washington, and Oregon Ter- 
ritories, were opened to slavery. 

By this bill it was left to each Territory 
whether to introduce or exclude slavery. 

The question now immediately pending was 
the admission of Kansas, as a State, into the 
Union. The pro-slavery party were of course 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNEE. 265 

resolved, if possible, to have it come in as a 
Slave State. For this purpose Mr. Douglas in- 
troduced a bill, March 17, 1856, " to authorize 
the people of the Territory of Kansas to form a 
Constitution and State Government, preparatory 
to their admission into the Union, when they 
have the requisite population." 

Beneath the seeming fairness of this bill there 
lurked an infamous plot. It was designed, by 
delay, to so manipulate the voting power in the 
Territory, under the direction of the president, 
an agent of slavery, that a slave constitution 
should be adopted, and Kansas present herself 
for admission to the Union as a Slave State. 

A letter from Mr. Sumner to Theodore Parker, 
under date of March 26, 1856, shows the plan 
adopted by the friends of freedom in Congress, 
in opposition to the pro-slavery plot : — 

'' I am glad you are to open on Kansas. Let 
me suggest to press the admission of Kansas at 
once with her present constitution. TJiis is the 
policy we have adopted^ and it will crowd Douglas 
and Cass infinitely. This proposition is some- 
thing practical ; and on this we must fight the 
presidential election. . . . 



266 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

" Seward will make a grand speech. I shall 
follow as soon as possible, and use plain words. 

",0 ! this enormity ife not really understood. 
The more I think of it, the more its wickedness 
glares." 

Two days before his speech (May 17), Mr. 
Sumner wrote to the same friend, " Alas ! alas ! 
the tyranny over us is complete. WiU the people 
submit? When you read this I shall be saying 
— in the Senate — they will not ! Would that I 
had your strength. But I shall pronounce the 
most thorough Philippic ever uttered in a legis- 
lative body." 

According to the policy referred to above, Mr. 
Seward submitted, by way of substitute, another 
bill, providing for immediate action : " A Bill for 
the Admission of the State of Kansas into the 
Union," with a free constitution. 

Thereupon ensued the great debate, in which 
Mr, Sumner took so prominent a part, using 
^^ plain words.^' He reviewed the whole history 
of the conspiracy for extending slavery into 
regions solemnly consecrated to freedom. The 
Nebraska Bill he called " a swindle " — "a swindle 
of the North by the South " — "a swindle of the 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 267 

whole countrj " — "a swindle of popular sover- 
eignty" — "a swindle of a great cause" — "a 
swindle of God-given, inalienable rights. Turn 
it over, look at it on all sides, and it is every- 
where a swindle ; and if the word I now employ 
has not the authority of classical usage, it has, on 
this occasion, the indubitable authority of fitness. 
No other word will adequately express the min- 
gled meanness and wickedness of the cheat." 

From this original monster swindle, other 
swindles were to issue. The region being opened 
to slavery, " it was confidently anticipated, that, 
by the activity of" secret slavery emigration so- 
cieties, " slavery might be introduced into Kan- 
sas, quietly, but surely, without arousing conflict 
— that the crocodile egg might be stealthily, 
dropped in the sunburnt soil, there to be hatched, 
unobserved, until it sent forth its reptile mon- 
ster." 

But, unfortunately for this plot, emigration was 
open from the Free States, and the South soon 
had cause to fear a decided failure. Large num- 
bers of people flocked to Kansas, for the double 
purpose of finding a home and saving the Ter- 
ritory to freedom. There sprang up a conflict 



268 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

which reddened the soil with blood, and revealed 
in many ways the desperate character of the slave 
power. Shall Kansas be the home of Freedom, or 
the den of Slavery ? That became the all-absorb- 
ing question through anxious years. 

" Popular sovereignty," the vaunted glory of 
the Nebraska Bill, designed to carry slavery into 
that Territory, was discovered to be full of danger 
to the South. Northern emigrants outnumbered 
those from the South. Now, then, that very 
feature of the bill must be trampled under foot 
by its own progenitors. The people of Kansas 
must be robbed of the rights solemnly — no, 
falsely — guaranteed to them. They were not 
to be allowed to decide against slavery. This 
outrage was attempted in five separate invasions 
of Kansas by armed bands, in one case number- 
ing eighteen hundred men, from Missouri, and by 
other acts of perfidy instigated or sanctioned at 
Washington. By controlling the ballot-box, these 
invaders elected a slavery delegate to Congress 
in 1854. 

" The first ballot-box," says General Pomeroy, 
" that was opened upon our virgin soil was closed 
to us by overpowering numbers and impending 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 269 

force. . . . They came upon us, not in the guise 
of voters, to steal away our franchise, but boldly 
and openly, to snatch it with a strong hand. They 
came directly from their own homes, and in com- 
pact and organized bands, with arms in hand and 
provisions for the expedition, marched to our 
polls, and, when their work was done, returned 
whence they came." 

" This infliction," says Mr. Sumner, " was a sig- 
nificant prelude to the grand invasion of the 30th 
March, 1855, at the election of the first territo- 
rial legislature under the organic law, when an 
armed multitude from Missouri entered the Terri- 
tory in larger numbers than General Taylor com- 
manded at Buena Vista, or than General Jackson 
within his lines at New Orleans — much larger 
than our fathers rallied on Bunker Hill. 

" On they came as an army with banners, or- 
ganized in companies, with officers, munitions, 
tents, and provisions, as though marching upon a 
foreign foe, and breathing loud-mouthed threats 
that they would carry their purpose, if need were, 
by the bowie-knife and the revolver. . . . Arrived 
at their several destinations on the night before 
the election, the invaders pitched their tents, 



270 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

placed their sentries, and waited for the coining 
day." 

" They came," says General Pomeroy, " with 
drums beating and flags flying, and their leaders 
were of the most prominent men in the State " 
[Missouri.] 

Accordingly, in flagrant contempt of their own 
bill, the free people of Kansas had imposed upon 
them a pro-slavery legislature. " Thus was con- 
quered the Sebastopol of that Territory." 

One year after the first invasion, another, the 
most formidable of all, " burst upon the heads of 
the devoted people " of Kansas. An army of 
eighteen hundred men, " with seven pieces of can- 
non, belonging to the United States," threatened 
the town of Lawrence. Though compelled at last 
to " a mean retreat," they committed shameful 
excesses, including several murders. All this was 
to punish the unreasonable people of Kansas for 
refusing to submit to foreign and lawless dictation. 

" From the beginning the spirit of evil hung 
upon the skirts of this interesting Territory, har- 
rowing its peace, disturbing its prosperity, and 
keeping its inhabitants under the painful alarms 
of war. All security of person, property, and 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 271 

labor was overthrown, ... a wrong which is 
small only by the side of the giant wrong, for the 
constimmation of which all this is done. ... As 
every point in a wide-spread horizon radiates from 
a common centre, so everything said or done in 
this vast circle of crime radiates from the One 
Idea, that Kansas, at all hazards, must be made a 
Slave State." 

" To accomplish this result, three things are at- 
tempted : first, by outrages of all kinds to drive 
the friends of freedom out of the Territory ; sec- 
ondly, to deter others from coming ; and, thirdly, 
to obtain complete control of the government." 

The usurping legislature formally recognized 
slavery in a law of thirteen sections. " In three 
sections only is the penalty of death denounced 
no less than forty-eight different times against 
the heinous offence ... of interfering with . . . 
property in flesh. Thus is Liberty sacrificed to 
Slavery, and Death summoned to sit at the gates as 
guardian of the Wrong. ''^ 

" Mark, three different legislative enactments 
constituted part of this work, " so as " to defy all 
effort at change through ordinary forms of law." 

" First, according to one act, all who deny, by 



272 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

spoken or written word, the ' right of persons to 
hold slaves in this Territory/ are denounced as fel- 
ons, to be punished by imprisonment at hard labor 
for a term not less than two years — it may be for 
life. . . . Secondly, by another act, no person can 
practise as an attorney, unless he shall obtain a 
license from the territorial courts, which, of course, 
a tyrannical discretion will be free to deny ; and, 
after obtaining such license, he is constrained to 
take an oath ' to support and sustain ' . . . the Ter- 
ritorial Act and the Fugitive Slave Bill. . . . And 
thirdly, by another act, all persons ' conscientious- 
ly opposed to the holding slaves,' or ' who do not 
admit the right to hold slaves in this Territory,' are 
excluded from the jury on every question, civil or 
criminal, arising out of arrested slave property." 

To insure the enforcement of these infamous 
statutes, the President of the United States ap- 
pointed proper instruments, in the shape of gov- 
ernor, chief justice, judges, secretary, attorney, 
and marshal. The legislature imposed a crowd 
of officers upon the people, whom they had no 
voice in appointing. 

" The final, inexorable work remained to be 
done." To guard against the possibility of any 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 273 

change at a future election, two different acts 
were passed : the first excluding from the elec- 
tive franchise all who would not take the oath to 
support the Fugitive Slave Bill ; the second enti- 
tling all other persons to vote who tendered a tax 
of one dollar to the sheriff on the day of election ; 
thus disfranchising all opposed to slavery, and at 
the same time opening the door to the votes of 
the invaders. 

" Thus was the crime consummated. Slavery 
stands erect, clanking its chains on the Territory 
of Kansas, surrounded by a code of death, and 
trampling upon all cherishecK liberties, whether 
of speech, the press, the bar, the trial by jury, or 
the electoral franchise. And, sir, all this is done, 
not merely to introduce a wrong which is itself 
a denial of all rights, and in dread of which 
mothers have taken the lives of their offspring, 
. . . but it is taken for the sake of political power, 
in order to bring two new slaveholding senators 
upon this floor, and thus to fortify in the national 
government the desperate chances of a waning 
oligarchy. As the gallant ship, voyaging on 
pleasant summer seas, is assailed by a pirate 
crew, and plundered of its doubloons and dollars, 
18 



274 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

SO is this beautiful Territory now assailed in 
peace and prosperity, and robbed of its political 
power for the sake of slavery. Even now the 
black flag of the land pirates from Missouri waves 
at the mast-head. In their laws you hear the 
pirate yell, and see the flash of the pirate knife ; 
while, incredible to relate, the President,* gath- 
ering the slave power at his back, testifies a pirate 
sympathy. 

" Emerging from all the blackness of this crime, 
where we seem to have been lost as in a savage 
wood, and turning our backs upon it, as upon 
devastation and death, from which, while others 
have sufi'ered, we have escaped, I come, now, to 
the apologies which the crime has found. . . . 
Great crimes of history have never been without 
apologies. The massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
which you now instinctively condemn, was, at 
the time, applauded in high quarters, and even 
commemorated by a papal medal, which may still 
be procured at Rome, — as the crime against Kan- 
sas, which is hardly less conspicuous in dread- 
ful eminence, has been shielded on this floor by 
extenuating words, and even by a presidential 

* Franklin Pierce. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 275 

message, which, like the papal medal, can never 
be forgotten in considering the perversity of 
men." 

For all these evils Mr. Sumner recommended 
what he styled " the remedy of justice and peace, 
proposed by the senator from New York, and 
embodied in his bill. . . . This is sustained by 
the prayer of the people of the Territory, setting 
forth a constitution formed by spontaneous move- 
ment, in which all there had opportunity to parti- 
cipate, without distinction of party. ... In offer- 
ing this proposition, the senator from New York 
has entitled himself to the gratitude of the coun- 
try. Throughout a life of unsurpassed industry, 
and of eminent ability, he has done much for 
freedom which the world will not let die ; but 
than this he has done nothing more opportune, 
and he has uttered no words more effective than 
this speech, so masterly and ingenious, by which 
he vindicated it." 

During the delivery of this speech, Mr. Butler, 
of South Carolina, interrupted the speaker no less 
than thirty-five times. Mr. Sumner thus paid his 
respects to him : — 

" With regret I come again upon the senator 



276 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

from South Carolina, who, omnipresent in this 
debate, overflows with rage at the simple sug- 
gestion that Kansas has applied for admission as 
a State, and, with incoherent phrase, discharges 
the loose expectoration of his speech, now upon 
her representative, and then upon her people. 
There was no extravagance of the ancient par- 
liamentary debate which he did not repeat ; nor 
was there any possible deviation from truth 
which he did not make — with so much of pas- 
sion, I gladly add, as to save him from the sus- 
picion of intentional aberration. But the senator 
touches nothing which he does not disfigure — 
with error, sometimes of principle, sometimes 
of fact. He shows an incapacity for accuracy, 
whether in stating the Constitution or in stating 
the law, whether in details of statistics or diver- 
sions of scholarship. He cannot ope his mouth, 
but out there flies a blunder. . . . 

" But it is against the people of Kansas that 
the sensibilities of the senator are particularly 
roused. Coming, as he announces, ' from a State,' 
— ay, sir, from South Carolina, — he turns with 
lordly disgust from this newly-formed community, 
which he will not recognize as even ' a member 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 277 

of the body politic' Pray, sir, by what title 
does he indulge in this egotism ? Has he read 
the history of the ' State ' which he represents ? 
He cannot, surely, forget its shameful imbecility 
from slavery, confessed throughout the Revolu- 
tion, followed by its more shameful assumption 
for slavery since. He cannot forget its wretched 
persistence in the slave-trade, as the very apple 
of its eye, and the condition of its participation 
in the Union. He cannot forget its constitution, 
which is republican only in name, confirming 
power in the hands of the few, and founding the 
qualifications of its legislators on ' a settled free- 
hold estate of five hundred acres of land, and ten 
negroes,' " 

Mr. Sumner concludes with these impressive 
words : 

" In just regard for free labor, which you would 
blast by deadly contact with slave labor, — in 
Christian sympathy with the slave, whom you 
would task and sell, — in stern condemnation of 
the crime consummated on that beautiful soil, — in 
rescue of fellow-citizens, now subjugated to tyran- 
nical usurpation, — in dutiful respect for the early 
fathers, whose aspirations are ignobly thwarted, 



278 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

— in the name of the Constitution outraged, of the 
laws trampled down, of justice banished, of hu- 
manity degraded, of peace destroyed, of freedom 
crushed to earth, — and in the name of the heav- 
enly Father, whose service is perfect freedom, I 
make this last appeal." 

Such was this famous speech, — "a grand and 
terrible philippic, worthy of the grand occasion ; 
the severe and awfiil truth, which the sharp 
agony of the national crisis demanded." * 

« J. G, Whittier. 



LIFE OF CHAKLES SUMNEB. 279 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Effect of Mr. Sumner^s Kansas Speech. — Mr. 
Sumner assaulted. — Preston S. Brooks. — 
Scene in the House. — Retirement of Brooks. — 
Southern Sympathy. — Northern Indignation. — 
Meetings in Massachusetts. — Faneuil Hall. — 
Peleg W. CJiandler. — Josiah Quincy. — Wendell 
Phillips. — Ralph Waldo Emerson. — Horace 
Mann. — Courier and Enquirer. — 3Ir. Sum- 
ner's Blother. 

In the Senate, and in the country at large, the 
speech of Mr. Sumner produced a profound im- 
pression, both upon the foes and friends . of 
slavery. The former rejoiced, the latter were 
exasperated. Those especially " whose course 
had been subjected to this terrible arraignment 
were excited to madness ; and summary ven- 
geance was agreed upon as the only remedy that 
would meet the exigency of the hour." The 
speech could not be answered ; the speaker must 



280 LIFE OF CHABLES SUMNER. 

be silenced. Such is alwaj^s the last argument 
of guilt. 

The select agent of the slave power to carry 
out their fell purpose was Preston S. Brooks, a 
representative from South Carolina, and nephew 
of Senator Butler. After the adjournment of 
the Senate, on the 22d of May, two days after 
the speech, Mr. Sumner remained at his desk 
engaged in writing. While so engaged, Brooks, 
whom he did not know, approached him and said, 
" I have read your speech twice over, carefully. 
It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, 
who is a relative of mine." 

While these words were passing from his lips, 
he commenced a series of blows with a bludgeon 
upon the senator's head, by which the latter was 
stunned, disabled, and smitten down, bleeding 
and insensible, on the floor of the chamber. From 
that floor he was taken by friends, borne to the 
ante-room, where his wounds were dressed, and 
then he was carried by Mr. Wilson, assisted by 
Captain Darling, doorkeeper of the House, faint 
and bleeding, to his lodgings. 

" The injuries of Mr. Sumner were serious, and 
became the subject of constant anxiety to his 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 281 

friends. It was four years before he was pro- 
nounced convalescent." * He never entirely re- 
covered from the effect of the assault, which was, 
doubtless, the remote cause of his death, eighteen 
years after. 

" Mr. Sumner, though confessedly the superior 
of his assailant in stature and physical strength, 
sitting and cramped beneath his writing-desk, 
over which he was bending, with pen in hand, 
taken unawares and at disadvantage, and his 
assailant raining blows upon his unprotected 
head, fairly represented Freedom and Slavery as 
they stood at that time confronting each other. 
Freedom, though instrinsically stronger than its 
antagonist, was yet practically weaker. . . . 

" In the evening of the day of the assault, the 
Republican senators met at the house of Mr. 
Seward. In a lean minority, — only one fifth of 
the Senate, — they knew that they were at the 
mercy of the majority, which was dominated by 
the incensed and inexorable leaders of the slave 
power. Always bitter and implacable, they were 
now still more determined and audacious. Al- 
ways zealous, their zeal was more inflamed by 

* Wilson. 



282 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

the fresh fuel these proceedings would add. 
What new victims would be required, who they 
should be, and whom their appetite for vengeance, 
whetted by this taste of blood, would select, they 
knew not. Not unlikely some who gathered 
there, like the disciples of John the Baptist, after 
their master had fallen a victim to a tyrant's 
power, felt that, though the night was dark and 
the future was forbidding, it was no time to despair 
or to remit effort. Nor would they, without re- 
monstrance, submit to such an invasion of their 
personal and political rights. It was agreed that 
Mr, Wilson should call the attention of the Senate 
to the subject the next day, and, unless some 
m-ember of the dominant party should move a 
committee of investigation, Mr. Seward should 
make such motion, 

" On the assembling of the Senate, amid deep 
excitement, crowds filling every available space 
in the Chamber and all its approaches, Mr. Wilson 
rose, and having narrated briefly the facts of the 
transaction, said, ' Sir, to assail a member of the 
Senate out of this Chamber ^ for words spoken in 
debate ' is a grave offence, not only against the 
rights of a senator, but the constitutional privi- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 283 

leges of this House ; but, sir, to come into this 
Chamber and assault a member in his seat, until 
he falls exhausted and senseless on this floor, is 
an offence requiring the prompt and decisive ac- 
tion of the Senate. Senators, I have called your 
attention to this transaction. I submit no motion. 
I leave it to older senators, whose character, 
whose position in this body and before the 
country, eminently fit them for the task of devis- 
ing measures to redress the wrongs of a member 
of this body, and to vindicate the honor and dig- 
nity of the Senate.' 

" As no Democratic senator proposed any ac- 
tion, Mr. Seward offered a resolution for a com- 
mittee of five members, to be appointed by the 
president, to inquire into the assault and to report 
the facts, together with their opinion thereon. 
On motion of Mr. Mason, the resolution was so 
amended as to provide that the committee should 
be chosen by the Senate ; and Pearce of Mary- 
land, Cass of Michigan, Dodge'of Wisconsin, Allen 
of Rhode Island, and Geyer of Missouri, were 
selected. The committee was chosen wholly 
from the Democratic party, and contained no one 
friendly to Mr. Sumner. The same day, Lewis 



284 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

D. Campbell introduced a resolution into tho 
House of Representatives reciting the particulars 
of the assault, and proposing a select committee 
of five to report such action as might be proper 
for the vindication of the House. After a brief 
debate, the resolution was adopted, and Campbell 
of Ohio, Pennington of New Jersey, Spinner of 
New York, Cobb of Georgia, and Greenwood of 
Arkansas, were appointed. . . . 

'' The Senate committee reported want of juris- 
diction, because, it contended, ' authority de- 
volves solely upon the House, of which he is a 
member ; ' and the Senate itself took no further 
action. 

« The House committee entered at once upon 
the investigation, and proceeded to examine the 
witnesses of the transaction. Visiting Mr. Sum- 
ner at his room, they took his deposition from his 
sick bed. He made substantially the same state- 
ment as that already given, mentioning the addi- 
tional fact that, on coming to consciousness, ' he 
saw Mr. Douglas and Mr. Toombs standing in the 
Senate, and Mr. Slidell in the anteroom, from 
which the latter ' retreated at once.' 

" This statement becoming known, these sena- 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER, 285 

tors felt called upon to make explanations of their 
knowledge of the affair, and of the course they 
had adopted in relation to it. Mr, Slidell, refer- 
ring to the fact that he was conversing with other 
senators, among whom was Mr. Douglas, when a 
messenger rushed in with the intelligence that 
somebody was beating Mr, Sumner, contemptu- 
ously said, ' We heard this remark without any 
particular emotion. For my part, I confess I felt 
none, I am not disposed to participate in broils 
of any kind. I remained very quietly in my seat. 
The other gentleman did the same. We did not 
move.' 

'' He stated that, a few minutes afterwards, he 
went into the Senate Chamber, and was told 
that Mr, Sumner was lying in a state of insensi- 
bility. Returning to the anteroom, and attempt- 
ing to pass out, he saw the wounded man as he 
was carried into the anteroom, ' his face covered 
with blood, and evidently faint and weak,' 'I 
am not,' said Mr, Slidell, ' particularly fond of 
scenes of any sort. I have no associations or re- 
lations of any kind with Mr. Sumner. I have not 
spoken to him for two years. I did not think it 
necessary to express any sympathy or make any 



286 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

advances towards him.' Slidell closed his remarks 
by saying he was free from any participation, 
connection, or counsel in the matter. 

" Douglas, too, deemed it his duty to make some 
explanation. He said that when the messenger 
passed through the room, and said somebody was 
beating Mr. Sumner, ' I rose immediately to my 
feet. My first impulse was to come into the Sen- 
ate Chamber and help to put an end to the afiray 
if I could. But it occurred to my mind in an in- 
stant that my relations to Mr. Sumner were such 
that if I came into the hall my motives would be 
misconstrued, perhaps, and I sat down again.' 

" He stated that a few moments afterwards he 
went into the Senate Chamber, and saw the 
crowd gathering about Mr. Sumner, who was 
prostrate on the floor. He closed his remarks by 
stating he did not know that he vfsis, in the Capi- 
tol, that he did not know that any man thought 
of attacking him, and that he had not the slight- 
est suspicion of what was to happen. 

" Mr. Toombs said, ' As for rendering Mr. Sum- 
ner any assistance, I did not do it.' It was also 
given in evidence that Mr. Keitt was present at 
the assault, not only consenting to the action of 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 287 

his colleague, but with violent demonstrations and 
profane expressions warning off all who would 
interfere to save the victim from his assailant."' * 

On the other hand, the friends of freedom dis- 
played a tender and courageous sympathy for the 
suffering senator, and a righteous indignation at 
the outrage committed. 

Mr. Wilson, a long-tried and steadfast friend, 
was among the first to hasten to the side of his 
stricken colleague, and to render him every broth- 
erly attention. Afterwards, in his place, he nobly 
represented Massachusetts in his denunciation of 
the attack as " brutal, murderous, and cowardly." 

The House committee brought in two reports ; 
the majority recommending the expulsion of 
Brooks, and expressing disapprobation of Edmon- 
son and Keitt ; the minority pleading want of 
jurisdiction. 

Here also Massachusetts vindicated her right 
to utter her sentiments on the floor of Congress, 
and defended her representative in the other 
Chamber from his assailants, whether they em- 
ployed tongue or bludgeon. Mr. Burlingame was 
particularly bold and eloquent. Of Mr. Sumner's 

* Wilson. 



288 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

speech he said, ' It was severe, because it was 
launched against tyranny. It was severe, as 
Chatham was severe, when he defended the fee- 
ble colonies against the giant oppression of the 
mother country. It was made in the face of a 
hostile Senate. It was continued through the 
greater portion of two days ; and yet, during that 
time, the speaker was not once called to order. 
This fact is conclusive as to the personal and 
parliamentary decorum of his speech. He had 
provocation enough. His State had been called 
' hypocritical.' He himself had been called ' a 
puppy,' ' a fool,' ' a fanatic,' and ' a dishonest man.' 
No man knew better than he did the proprieties 
of the place, for he had always observed them. 
No man knew better than he did parliamentary 
law, because he had made it the study of his life. 
No man saw more clearly than he did the flaming 
sword of the Constitution turning every way, 
guarding all the avenues of the Senate. But he 
was not thinking of these things ; he was not 
thinking then of the privileges of the Senate, nor 
of the guarantees of the Constitution. He was 
there to denounce tyranny and crime ; and he did 
it. He was there to speak for the rights of an 
empire, and he did it bravely and grandly." 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 289 

"The House," says Mr. Wilson, "censured 
Keitt, but failed to condemn Edmonson. Keitt 
resigned. One hundred and twenty-one mem- 
bers voted to expel Brooks, and ninety-five voted 
against expulsion. Having failed to expel, — a 
two-thirds vote being necessary, — a vote of 
censure was adopted by a large majority. 

" After these votes were declared, Mr. Brooks 
addressed the House in a speech of mingled as- 
sumption, insolence, and self-conceit. While dis- 
claiming all intention to insult Congress, the 
Senate, or the State of Massachusetts, he seemed 
to be utterly oblivious that there had been any 
infringement of law or the rights of others ; it be- 
ing simply, he said, ' a personal affair, for which 
I am personally responsible.' With infinite ef- 
frontery he affirmed, ' I went to work very deliber- 
ately, as I am charged, — and this is admitted, — 
and speculated somewhat as to whether I should 
employ a horsewhip or a cowhide ; but knowing 
that the senator was my superior in strength, it 
occurred to me that he might wrest it from my 
hand, and then (for I never attempt anything I 
do not perform) I might have been compelled to 
do that which I would have regretted the balance 
19 



290 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 

of my natural life.' What that contingency he so 
coolly admitted was, every reader can conjecture. 

" With still greater assurance and self-asser- 
tion, he claimed, as a matter of credit for his for- 
bearance, that he had not plunged the nation into 
civil war, as if he had held the destinies of the 
Republic in his hands.- ' In my heart of hearts,' 
he said, ' such a menacing line of conduct I be- 
lieve would end in subverting this government 
and drenching this hall ' in blood. No act of 
mine, on my personal account, shall inaugurate 
revolution ; but when you, Mr. Speaker, return to 
your own home, and hear the people of the great 
North — and they are a great people — speak of 
me as a bad man, you will do me the justice to 
say that a blow struck by me at this time would 
be followed by a revolution ; and this I know.' 

" Concluding his speech, he announced the 
resignation of his seat, and walked out of the 
House." 

One of the saddest features of this affair was 
the general, in most cases the enthusiastic, ap- 
proval accorded to Brooks by the Southern peo- 
ple. The men applauded him, fair women smiled 
upon him. Not only the young " chivalry," but 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 291 

grave and reverend heads, professors of science, 
teachers of youthj and preachers of righteousness, 
joined in the general jubilation. There were, of 
course, individual exceptions ; but the proofs of 
an all but universal satisfaction with the bloody 
deed are too numerous and strong to be contro- 
verted. The South indorsed the act, and made 
it its own. South Carolina placed the crown 
upon the head of her censured representative, 
by returning him immediately to Congress, with 
the bludgeon in his hand. Brooks was the hero 
of the hour ; though later, he confessed that he 
was heart- sick of the gifts and honors heaped 
upon him as the prince of bullies. 

Jefferson Davis, to an invitation to attend a 
public dinner in honor of Brooks, was not slow 
to reply, '' I have only to express to you my 
sympathy with the feeling which prompts the 
sons of Carolina to welcome the return of a 
brother who has been the subject of vilification, 
misrepresentation, and persecution, because he 
resented a libellous assault upon the representa- 
tive of their mother." 

The students and officers of the University of 
Virginia voted a cane to their hero, — their 



292 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

diploma, — expressing their sense of his superior 
attainments in the noble science of assault and 
battery. Never was a seat of learning prosti- 
tuted to a more ignoble use. 

In view of these facts, which might be greatly 
multiplied, what proof we have of the power of 
prejudice, especially of the blinding, demoraliz- 
ing influence of slavery ! But we gladly turn 
from such exhibitions of human folly and frenzy. 

All through the Free North there sprang up 
instantly a feeling which stood in marked and 
most favorable contrast with these Southern 
demonstrations. Slavery and freedom were more 
and more revealing their opposite characters. 
Where the latter prevailed, the people, regard- 
less of political differences, rushed together to 
express their profound sense of a great wrong 
done to Liberty. Massachusetts, as most directly 
assailed, was the most deeply moved. But every- 
where, every man felt that in the attack upon 
Mr. Sumner, he himself had been personally 
smitten. Where was free speech, where was 
liberty of any kind, if such deeds of violence 
could be allowed? 

The most important result of this atrocity was 



i 

LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 293 

the deeper impression now made upon the minds 
of all anti-slavery men, or that now for the first 
time awakened among men hitherto indifferent 
or hostile to the movement for freedom — that 
slavery was the crowning shame and curse of 
the country. It was slavery that had beaten to 
the ground a representative of the people — a de- 
fender of liberty ; and slavery must fall. 

" When/' said his colleague, Mr. Wilson, " I 
lifted his bleeding body from the floor, and laid 
him upon a lounge, and then washed his blood 
from my hands, I swore eternal vengeance to 
slavery, and consecrated my life anew to the 
cause of human freedom." And such was the 
feeling in ten thousand hearts, aU over the 
North. 

At a public meeting in Faneuil Hall, Hon. Peleg 
W. Chandler said, — and his words were but 
an expression of the universal feeling, — "It is 
precisely because I have been and am now his 
personal friend, and it is precisely because I have 
been and now am his political opponent, that I 
am here to-night. . . . Yet personal feelings are 
of little or no consequence in this outrage. It is 
a blow not merely at Massachusetts, a blow not 



294 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

merely at the name and fame of our common 
country, — it is a blow at constitutional liberty all 
the world over ; it is a stab at the cause of uni- 
versal freedom. Whatever may be done in this 
niatter, however, one thing is certain, one thing 
is sure. The blood of this Northern man now 
stains the Senate floor, and let me tell you that 
not all the water of the Potomac can wash it out. 
Forever, forever and aye, that stain will plead in 
silence for liberty wherever man is enslaved, for 
humanity all over the world, for truth and for 
justice, now and forever." 

The Hon. Josiah Quincy, then in the eighty- 
fifth year of his age, said, in a meeting at 
Quincy, — 

" The blow struck upon the head of Charles 
Sumner did not fall upon him alone. It was a 
blow purposely aimed at the North. It was a 
blow struck at the very Tree of Liberty. It 
speaks to us in words not to be mistaken. It 
says to us that Northern men shall not be heard 
in the halls of Congress, except at the point of 
the bowie-knife, the bludgeon, and revolver. 

" The bludgeon, heretofore only brandished, 
has at last been brought down. Charles Sumner 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 295 

needs not our sympathy ; if he dies, his name 
will be immortal — his name will be enrolled 
with the names of Warren, Sidney, and Russell ; 
if he lives, he is destined to be the light of the 
nation." 

At another meeting in Boston, Wendell Phillips 
spoke with even more than his wonted elo- 
quence. 

" Nobody," he said, " needs now to read this 
speech of Charles Sumner to learn whether it is 
good. We measure the amount of the charge 
by the length of the rebound. When the spear, 
driven to the quick, makes the devil start up in 
his pwn likeness, we may be sure it is the spear 
of Ithuriel. That is my way of measuring the 
speech which has produced this glorious result. 
0, yes, glorious ! for the world will yet cover 
every one of those scars with laurels. Sir, he 
must not die ! We need him yet, as the van- 
guard leader of the hosts of Liberty. Nay, he- 
shall yet come forth from that sick chamber, and 
every gallant heart in the Commonwealth be 
ready to kiss his very footsteps." 

Referring to what some had regarded as 
coarseness in one of Mr. Sumner's comparisons, 



296 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Mr. Phillips said, *' In utter scorn of the sickly 
taste, of the effeminate scholarship that starts 
back in delicate horror at a bold illustration, 1 
dare to say there is no animal God has con- 
descended to make, that man may not venture 
to name. And if any ground of complaint is 
supposable in regard to this comparison, which 
shocks the delicacy of some men and some 
presses, it is the animal, not Mr. Douglas, that 
has reason to complain. ... I place the foot of 
my uttermost contempt on those members of the 
press in Boston that have anything to say in 
criticism of his language, while he lies there pros- 
trate and speechless — our champion, beat^a to 
the ground for the noblest word Massachusetts 
ever spoke in the Senate." 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in a speech at Concord, 
said, " Well, sir, this noble head, so comely and 
so wise, must be a target for a pair of bullies to 
beat with clubs ! The murderer's brand shall 
stamp their foreheads, wherever they may wan- 
der in. the earth. 

" But I wish, sir, that the high respects of this 
meeting shall be expressed to Mr. Sumner. . . . 
I wish that he may know the shudder of ter- 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 297 

ror that ran tlirough all this community on the 
first tidings of this brutal attack. Let him hear 
that every man of worth in New England loves 
his virtues, — that every mother thinks of him 
as the protector of families, — that every friend 
of freedom thinks him the friend of freedom." 

Horace Mann, his early and devoted friend, 
wrote to Mr. Sumner, "We are wounded in 
your wounds, and bleed in your bleeding." 
Writing later, he said, " It is impossible to tell 
how much we have felt for you — sorrow, admi- 
ration, hope, afi"ection for you ; grief, indignation, 
contempt, abhorrence for the malefactor. Mrs. 
Mann read one account of the outrage, and 
could never read another. She said she felt the 
concussion of the blows all through her brain." 

The legislature of Massachusetts passed a se- 
ries of resolves concerning the assault, describ- 
ing it as " brutal and cowardly in itself, a gross 
breach of parliamentary privilege, a ruthless 
attack upon the liberty of speech, an outrage of 
the decencies of civilized life, and an indignity 
to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." 

They demanded of the national Congress " a 
prompt and strict investigation " of the affair. 



298 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

and the expulsion of Brooks and any other mem- 
ber concerned with him in the assault. 

Beyond Massachusetts, everywhere but at the 
South, a similar feeling was manifested. Gov- 
ernor Clark, of New York, wrote to Mr. Sumner, 
expressing his abhorrence of the assault, and his 
personal sympathy with the sufferer. 

In New York an " immense meeting, and 
unprecedented in character," declared the con- 
duct of Brooks to have been •' brutal, murder- 
ous, and cowardly." 

An editorial in the Courier and Enquirer, of 
New York, admirably summed up the moral 
result of the act of Brooks : — 

" The fact is incontestable, that when the 
Massachusetts senator again crosses the thresh- 
hold of that Senate Chamber, slavery will have 
to confront the most formidable foe it ever had to 
face before the public eye. He will come with 
every muscle braced and every sinew strung by 
the sense of measureless personal wrong ; but, 
infinitely more than that, he will come armed with 
the indignation and shielded by the moral sup- 
port of the whole North. Hitherto he has fig- 
ured but in one character — the assailant of 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNEE. 299 

slavery ; henceforth he will be also the accredited 
assertor and champion of the most sacred right 
of freedom of speech, and as such will command 
tenfold greater consideration. His antagonists 
have affected to despise him before, and to treat 
him with scorn. The day for that has passed. 
The public man, who has once been the occasion 
of such an outburst of sympathy and good-will 
as has within the last week sprung from the 
mouth of millions upon millions of his country- 
men, is no longer a man to be disdained. He 
has henceforth position, power, and security be- 
yond any of his adversaries." A true prophe- 
cy, in due time to be fulfilled to the letter. 

The expressions of regard and sympathy 
which came to Mr. Sumner from so many 
quarters must have been peculiarly grateful to 
his heart. He received them as proofs both of 
personal friendship and of interest in the cause 
in which his life had been imperilled. But there 
were other testimonials, which, though he was 
grateful for the sentiment which prompted them, 
he felt constrained instantly to decline. One was 
the payment by the State of the expense of his 
illness, which was recommended by the governor 



300 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

to the legislature : the other " a massive and 
elaborate silver vase, bearing upon its summit a 
figure representing Charles Sumner holding his 
Kansas Speech in his right hand," with other 
elegant artistic designs. 

As soon as Mr. Sumner learned that these were 
in progress, he courteously, but firmly, refused 
them, expressing his wish that the money de- 
signed to be thus appropriated might be applied 
for the benefit of Kansas. 

Throughout this terrible scene there was one 
heart upon which fell a burden of anxiety and 
grief peculiarly its own. It was the heart of the 
mother. She was then living in Boston, at the 
age of seventy-one, a widow, and already be- 
reaved of several children. The tidings which 
flew over the wires that her noble son, who had 
spoken so truly and bravely, was a dreadful 
suiferer from blows which might prove fatal, 
must have pierced her heart as with a sword. 
Ah, how she wished to fly to him, that she might 
watch over him as only a mother can, and tell 
him how much she loved him, how proud she was 
of him ; or if, as her fears might suggest, he 
should not recover, that a mother's hand might 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNEE. 301 

perform the last sad offices. What anxious hours 
were hers between the first news of his being 
smitten and the better tidings that he would 
not die. 

We are glad to know, from the testimony of 
her pastor, that she bore the great trial with 
Christian patience, worthy the mother of such a 
son. And besides the supports of religion, she 
had this strong consolation, that he had suffered* 
because of his fidelity to his convictions in the 
cause of humanity. 

As to the son, in those moments when murder- 
ous strokes were raining upon him, how must his 
mind have flown to that mother — sadder, no 
doubt, for her sake, than for his own. 

Thank God, it was to be his privilege, in after 
years, to be with that fond mother when " heart 
and flesh were failing " her. 



302 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Mr. Sumner'' s Health. — Rest necessary. — Return 
to Boston. — Welcome Reception. — His Ti^ibute 
to Henry Wilson. — Reception given to Brooks. 
— Re-election of 3Ir. Sumner. — Six Years' , 
Changes. — Letter of Acceptance. — Letter to 
a Friend. — Sails for Europe. — Letter. — Re- 
turn. — To Europe again — Bleets De Tocque- 
ville. — Brown- Sequard. — Saved by " FireJ^ — 
Letter. — Cured. — Returns to the Senate. — 
Changes. 

Mr. Sumner has disappeared from the Senate, 
but he has not finished his course. He has yet 
other battles to fight, other triumphs to win. 
And his long silence of four suffering years 
shall plead eloquently for the cause which he 
has so much at heart. 

Mr. Sumner hoped that, after a few weeks of 
absence, he would be able to resume his seat in 
the Senate. But the injuries he had received 
proved to be far too serious to allow a speedy 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 303 

return. Fever ensued, followed by extreme ex- 
haustion, and " for three days he was in a critical 
situation." The case was a " formidable " one. 
It was weeks before the wounds were closed. 
Pains in the head came on. in paroxysms. Then 
ensued " a feeling of oppressive weight or pres- 
sure on the brain, as of ' a fifty-six pound 
weight ' upon his head. At the same time he lost 
flesh and strength, his appetite was irregular, 
and his nights wakeful. Every step he took 
seemed to produce a shock upon his brain. 
His walk was irregular and uncertain, and after 
slight efforts he would lose almost entire control 
of the lower extremities." Such was the report 
of Dr. Perry. 

It was certain that an entire suspension of 
mental labor was necessary. There must be 
perfect rest, with the most careful medical 
treatment. Several months were spent in this 
way, chiefly at Philadelphia and Cape May. 

In November, nearly six months after he was 
struck, Mr. Sumner was so far recovered that he 
was able to return to his home in Boston. The 
public reception then given him was most hearty 
and enthusiastic. Everybody came out to greet 



304 " LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

him. As his carriage passed through the streets, 
he was cheered by sympathizing multitudes, 
while the ladies '' showered their bouquets upon 
him from sidewalks and windows." 

Mr. Sumner was able to speak but a few 
words. Addressing the governor, he said, — 

" I thank you for this welcome. I thank, also, 
the distinguished gentlemen who have honored 
this occasion by their presence. I thank, too, 
these swelling multitudes who contribute to me 
the strength and succor of their sympathies ; 
and my soul overflows especially to the young 
men of Boston, out of whose hearts, as from an 
exuberant fountain, this broad-spreading hospi- 
tality took its rise." 

In that part of his address which he had not 
strength to deliver, but which afterwards ap- 
peared in the journals, Mr. Sumner spoke of his 
feelings under an enforced absence from Wash- 
ington : — 

" More than five months have passed since I 
was disabled from the performance of my public 
duties. During this weary period I have been 
constrained to repeat daily the lesson of renun- 
ciation — confined at first to my bed, and then 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 305 

only slowly regaining the power even to walk. 
But, beyond the constant, irrepressible grief 
which must well up in the breast of every 
patriot, as he discerns the present condition 
of his country, my chief sorrow has been caused 
by the necessity to which I was doomed, of re- 
nouncing all part in the contest for human rights, 
which, beginning in Congress, has since envel- 
oped the whole land. . . . From day to day and 
week to week I vainly sought that health which 
we value most when lost, and which perpetually 
eluded my pursuit. For health I strove, for 
health I prayed. With uncertain steps I sought 
it at the sea- shore, and I sought it on the moun- 
tain-top. 

Two voices are there : one is of the sea, 
One of the mountains ; each a mighty voice : 
In both from age to age thou didst rejoice ; 
They were thy chosen music, Liberty ! ' 

I listened to the admonitions of medical skill, 
as I courted all the bracing influences of nature, 
while time passed without the accustomed heal- 
ing on its wings." 

In the course of his remarks, Mr. Sumner 
paid a deserved tribute to the worth of his 
20 



306 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

" able, generous, and faithful colleague, Henry 
Wilson." 

" Together we labored in mutual trust, hon- 
orably leaning upon each other. By my dis- 
ability he was left sole representative of Massa- 
chusetts on the floor of the Senate, throughout 
months of heated contest, involving her good 
name and most cherished sentiments. All who 
watched the current of debate, even as imper- 
fectly as I did in my retirement, know with what 
readiness, courage, and power he acted, — show- 
ing himself, by extraordinary energies, equal to 
the extraordinary occasion. But it is my es- 
pecial happiness to recognize his unfailing sym- 
pathies for myself, and his manly assumption of 
all the responsibilities of the hour." 

In conclusion, Mr. Sumner said, — 

" With thanks for this welcome, accept also my 
new vows of duty. In all simplicity let me say 
that I seek nothing but the triumph of truth. 
To this I offer my best efforts, careless of office 
or honor. Show me that I am wrong, and I 
stop at once ; but in the complete conviction of 
right, I shall persevere against all temptations, 
agamst all odds, ag inst all perils, against all 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 307 

thredts, — knowing well, that whatever may be 
my fate, the Eight will surely prevail. Torres- 
trial place is determined by celestial observation. 
Only by watching the stars can the mariner safe- 
ly pursue his course ; and it is only by obeying 
those lofty principles which are above men and 
human passion, that we can make our way safely 
through the duties of life. In such obedience I 
hope to live, while, as a servant of Massachusetts,. 
I avoid no labor, shrink from no exposure, and 
complain of no hardship." 

When Brooks returned to his native city, he was 
warmly welcomed. But how marked the contrast 
with the present reception ! Brooks was lauded 
and caressed as the hero of slavery, for a deed of 
mingled cruelty and cowardice ; Mr. Sumner, as 
the champion of freedom, for brave words spoken 
in behalf of an oppressed community — the one 
as the assailant, the other as the martyr, of lib- 
erty. Mr. Sumner had no subsequent occasion to 
be " heart-sick " of the honors heaped upon him. 

Among those who gave welcome to Mr. Sum- 
ner, none rejoiced like the aged mother, as with 
tears and smiles she embraced once more her son, 
given to her, as it were, from the dead. With 



308 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

what motherly pride she looked out from her win- 
dow to see the crowds assembled to do him honor, 
and heard the loud cheers that went up in praise 
of his righteous conduct ! 

To give joy to a mother's heart by an honora- 
ble and useful career, though in a sphere humbler 
than the great senator's, is worth the serious en- 
deavor of any young man. To be regardless of 
a mother's feelings, in a life of vice and dissipa- 
tion, proves the absence of all true nobility of 
character. 

In Boston and vicinity Mr. Sumner spent sev- 
eral months under medical treatment, compelled 
to pass much of the time in bed. But still his 
health seemed to improve, so that his physician 
could say, " Time and repose will do the rest." 

His term of office had now expired, but Massa- 
chusetts would not dismiss him from her service. 
Who could take the place of Charles Sumner? 
For six years he had maintained the honor of the 
old Commonwealth and the cause of freedom, 
amidst contempt, abuse, menace, and peril of 
life, with an ability, an eloquence, a fidelity, a 
purity of purpose, and a conscientious regard to 
truth and justice, unsurpassed in senatorial his- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 309 

toiy. And had he not siiJEFered as the representa- 
tive of Massachusetts ? Every heart cried out 
for his re-election, and when the vote was count- 
ed, January 9, 1857, he had received three hun- 
dred and thirty-three out of three hundred and 
forty-five votes in the House, and the entire vote 
of the Senate. 

Six years before, he was elected by a bare ma- 
jority of two votes ; now he is returned by a 
" spontaneous unanimity." Then he was in the 
vigor of his young manhood ; now he is an inva- 
lid, too feeble to take his seat, and compelled 
even to leave his country in search of strength. 
But whether silent in his seat, prostrate upon his 
bed, or a wanderer in foreign lands, he is the 
Commonwealth's chosen champion. His vacant 
seat will tell a daily story of wrong and out- 
rage, and thus utter its eloquent condemnation 
of a system founded in and defended by violence. 
Such a man can never be silent. 

In Mr. Sumner's letter of acceptance he said, 
'' This renewed trust I accept with gratitude, 
enhanced by the peculiar circumstances under 
which it is bestowed. But far beyond any per- 
sonal gratification is the delight of knowing, by 



310 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

this sign, that the people of Massachusetts, for- 
getting ancient party hates, have at last come 
together in fraternal support of a sacred cause, 
compared with which the fate of any public ser- 
vant is of small account." 

In February, 1857, towards the close of the 
session, he returned to Washington, and was 
again in his seat ; but, March 1, he wrote to a 
friend, " I have sat in my seat only on one day. 
After a short time the torment to my system be- 
came great, and a cloud began to gather over my 
brain. I tottered out, and took to my bed. I 
long to speak, but I cannot. Sorrowfully I resign 
myself to my condition, . . . 

" What I can say must stand adjourned to anoth- 
er day. Nobody can regret this so much as my- 
self, and my unhappiness will be increased if I 
have not your sympathy in this delay. 

" I may die ; but if I live, a word shall be 
spoken in the Senate which shall tear slavery 
open from its chops to its heels. ... 

" Till then, patience." 

Warned by his medical advisers to seek rest 
abroad, Mr. Sumner set sail for Europe on March 
7, 1857. From on board the steamship he spoke 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 311 

" a last word for Kansas," in a letter to Mr. Eed- 
path. " With a farewell to my country, as I seek 
a foreign land, hoping for health long deferred, I 
give my last thoughts to suffering Kansas, not 
without devout prayers that the ruffian usurpa- 
tion which now treads her down may be peace- 
ably overthrown, and that she may be lifted into 
the enjoyment of freedom and repose." 

While absent, he made his restoration to health 
his daily care. He received the best medical ad- 
vice, to which he faithfully submitted. He trav- 
elled, as strength would allow, in France, Swit- 
zerland, England, and Scotland. He had the 
pleasure of feeling that he was really improving, 
though amid frequent relapses. From Heidel- 
berg, September 11, he wrote to a friend in an 
encouraging strain : — 

'^ Weeks have now passed since I have seen a 
letter or newspaper from home. During this 
time I have been travelling away from news, and 
am now famished. On arrival at Antwerp I trust 
to find letters at last. 

" I have been ransacking Switzerland ; I have 
visited most of it's lakes, and crossed several of 
its mountains, mule-back. My strength has not 



312 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

allowed me to venture upon any of those foot ex- 
peditions, the charm of Swiss travel, by which 
you reach places out of the way ; but I have seen 
much, and have gained health constantly. 

" I have crossed the Alps by the St. Gothard, 
and then recrossed by the Great St. Bernard, 
passing a night with the monks and dogs. I have 
spent a day at the foot of Mont Blanc, and an- 
other on the wonderful Lake Leman. I have 
been in the Pyrenees, in the Alps, in the Chan- 
nel Islands. You will next hear of me in the 
Highlands of Scotland. 

" I see our politics now in distant perspective, 
and I am more than ever satisfied that our course 
is right. It is slavery which degrades our coun- 
try, and jDrevents its example from being all- 
conquering. In fighting our battle at home, we 
fight the battle of Freedom everywhere. Be 
assured, I shall return, not only with renewed 
strength, but with renewed determination to give 
myself to our great cause." 

Against the advice of eminent physicians, Mr. 
Sumner resolved to attempt the resumption of his 
official duties. In December, 1857, he was once 
more in his seat. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 313 

But a trial of his strength convinced him that 
he was yet far from being well. His disease had, 
indeed, assumed new and alarming features. 
Once more he must quit the Senate Chamber to 
seek rest and medical help abroad. In May, 
1858, he crossed the Atlantic. 

In Paris he had the sympathy of noble men, 
among whom was De Tocqueville. " Nous nous 
sommes occupes de vous beaucoup dernierement/' 
said this great man to Mr. Sumner, who replied, 
" Ah, monsieur, je me suis occupe de vous toute 
ma vie.'' * 

But above all it was his good providence to 
meet the most skilful physician of the age — 
Brown-Sequard. At last he had found a healer. 
But at what a cost of pain, even to agony, was a 
cure to come ! He was to be saved by " fire." 

We cannot do better here than give some ex- 
tracts from a lecture, — one of a course at the 
Lowell Institute, in Boston, — by Brown-Sequard, 
just after Mr. Sumner's death, as reported in 
the Daily Journal. The subject for the evening 
was " Nervous Diseases," and the lecturer took 
advantage of the opportunity thus presented him 

* " We have had you upon our minds a great deal of late. 
" Ah, sir, I have had you in my mind all my life." 



314 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

of adding a word in honor of the memory of his 
patient and friend, and paid one of the truest and 
most delicate compliments to his name that has 
yet been given. He was very deeply affected, 
even to tears, in which many of the audience 
joined. He began as follows : — 

" In this, my fifth lecture here, I have to beg 
your forgiveness for being moved. Since 1857 
the great man who has left us has been under my 
care, and been also my very dear friend. I sym- 
pathized in every one of the generous impulses 
which have aided in raising him to such a high 
place of influence in his countr}', and therefore it 
is very easy for you to understand that I am now 
hardly able to say more about his greatness, and 
the blow which our country and you, in this tran- 
sition, have suffered. In a moment, when I am a 
little more in control of my nerves, I will have to 
say something else about him — something which 
I never mentioned in his life. I knew that the 
modesty, by far greater in him than anybody 
knew to exist, would have been wounded if I 
had spoken as I will when I am more free in my 
thought and in the articulation of my voice." 
He then proceeded, for a few moments, in tho 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 315 

consideration of the subject of his lecture, which 
was in regard to the nervous system. He con- 
tinued : — 

'^ When Mr. Sumner first came under my care, 
he was suffering from a derangement of some 
fibres of the nerves. As you all know, he had 
received a blow upon the head. His spine, as he 
was sitting, was bent in two places. His bent 
spine had produced the effects of a sprain ; and 
when I saw him in Paris he had recovered alto- 
gether from the first effects of the blow. He had 
then two troubles : one was, that he could not 
make use of his brain at all. He could not read 
a newspaper or write a letter. He was in a fear- 
ful state. It seemed to him as if his head would 
explode, as if there was some great force in it 
pushing the parts away from each other. Indeed, 
his emotions were fearful to me. Often, in con- 
versation, if anything was said calling for any 
degree of deep thought, he suffered intensely 
immediately, so that we had to be extremely 
careful with him. He had another trouble, of the 
same nature as regards external appearances, but 
occupying another portion of the spine, and caus- 
ing other symptoms. It was a sprain at the level 



316 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

of the last dorsal vertebra. The irritation there 
was intense, and any motion was extremely hard. 
When he walked, he had to push forward his right 
foot and then his left, holding on all the while to 
his back Avith both hands to relieve the pain. It 
had been thought that he was paralyzed as to his 
lower limbs ; it had been thought that he had a 
disease of the brain, and that was regarded as 
being the cause of the paralysis of the lower 
limbs. Fortunately the discovery made with re- 
gard to the vaso-motor nerves led me at once to 
find that he had no disease of the brain and no 
paralysis. He had only an irritation of the vaso- 
motor nerves, at their exit from the spine. When 
I asked him if he was conscious of any weakness 
in his limbs, he said, ' Certainly not ; I only can- 
not walk on account of the pain.' What was to 
to be done then was to apply counter-irritation 
on these two sprains ; the only point which has 
led me to speak of this. I told him the best plan 
of treatment would consist in the application of 
moxa, the most painful application to the skin. I 
asked him if he would not take chloroform to dull 
the pain or remove it altogether. I shall always 
remember his impressive assent when I had said 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 317 

that. He said, ' Doctor, if you can say positively 
that I shall derive just as much benefit if I take 
chloroform as if I do not, then I will take chloro- 
form ; but if there is to be any degree whatever 
of greater amelioration in case I don't take chlo- 
roform, then I shall not take it.' I didn't have 
the courage to deceive him. I told him there 
would be more good if he didn't take chloroform. 
So I had to submit him to the martyrdom of the 
greatest suffering that can be inflicted by medi- 
cal practice, and burned him. I thought that, 
after the torture of the first time, he would then 
resort to chloroform ; but for five times after, 
in accordance with his own determination, the 
operation was performed without it. I never saw 
a patient before that would submit to such a 
thing. The only explanation for his conduct was 
this : at that time he was much abused. Report 
had reached him that some of his countrymen at 
home considered that he was amusing himself 
in Paris, pretending to be ill ; and he wanted to 
return as quickly as possible. A few days, there- 
fore, were of great importance to him; so he 
passed through all that terrible and most intense 
suffering, the greatest I have ever had the mis- 



318 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

fortune to inflict, be it upon man or animal. I 
have mentioned it on this account, only to show 
what kind of a man he was. And I will only add 
that I have seen him always since to be ready to 
submit to anything for the sake of what he 
thought was right, and in other spheres you all 
know that such was his character about every- 
thing." 

At this point the speaker was completely over- 
come by his emotion, and, begging permission to 
defer the remainder of his lecture to another 
time, he hastily withdrew from the stage. 

Another account adds, that when Mr. Sumner 
called on Brown- Sequard, he asked what kind of 
remedy would be used, to which the doctor re- 
plied, " Fire." The patient instantly accepted 
the harsh remedy, and when the next day was 
proposed as the time for its first application, he 
insisted upon that very afternoon. 

Here was more than physical courage — here 
was moral bravery of the highest kind ; for with 
Mr. Sumner, a cure was not merely the sweet re- 
newal of health, but the certainty of putting on 
again his armor in the defence of a cause dearer 
to him than life. He was eager for the conflict. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 319 

After a time Mr. Sumner left Paris for the 
South of France, still undergoing daily the most 
severe treatment. From a letter to a friend, 
written September 11, 1858, we learn how he 
now spent his time, and what were his feel- 
ings. 

" Look at the map of Europe, and you will 
find, nestling in the mountains of Savoy, between 
Switzerland and France, the little village of Aix, 
generally known as Aix-les-Bains, from the baths 
which give it fame. There I am now. The 
country about is most beautiful, the people sim- 
ple and kind. 

" My life is devoted to health. I wish that I 
could say that I am not still an invalid ; yet, ex- 
cept when attacked by the pain on my chest, I 
am now comfortable, and enjoy my baths, my 
walks, and the repose and incognito which I find 
here. 

" I begin the day with douches, hot and cold, 
and, when thoroughly exhausted, am wrapped in 
sheet and blanket, and conveyed to my hotel, and 
laid on my bed. After my walk, I find myself 
obliged again to take to my bed for two hours 
before dinner. But this whole treatment is in 



320 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

pleasant contrast with the protracted suffering 
from fire which made the summer a torment. 
And yet I fear that I must return to that treat- 
ment. 

" It is with a pang unspeakable that I find my- 
self thus arrested in the labors of life, and in the 
duties of my position. This is harder to bear 
than the fire. I do not hear of friends engaged in 
active service . . . without a feeling of envy." 

Returning to Paris, Brown-Sequard gave him 
the joyful information that the cure was com- 
plete. 

Hope long, long and most painfully deferred, 
is at last realized. Through four tedious years 
of suspense and pain, he has looked forward to 
this hour ; and now it has come. 

He hears the call of duty from across the waters, 
and when Congress opens, December, 1859, he 
takes up his work, in the exulting consciousness 
that this time it shall not drop from his hands. 

But where are the men who had compelled him 
to lay down that work, and because it was so 
faithfully done? Two of the most prominent 
actors, the most audacious, arrogant, insulting, 
and, for the time being, seemingly most potential, 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 321 

— Brooks and Butler, — were in their graves in 
less than a year after the assault, Brooks having 
experienced a sudden and most agonizing death. 
The contrast is impressive. 
21 



322 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Excited State of Feeling. — Letters to Mr. Glajlin. 

— John Brown. — His Demeanor ; his Execu- 
tion ; his 'previous Interview with Mr. Sumner. 

— John Brown in Congress. — Kidnapping. — 
Petitions against Slavery tabled. — Letter from 
Horace Mann. — Speech, " Barbarism of Sla- 
very." — Allusion to Brooks. — Reply of Mr. 
Chesnuf. — 3Ir. Sicmner^s Life vn Danger. 

At the time of Mr. Sumner's return to the 
Senate,* the country was in a state of intense 
excitement. John Brown had just made his 
bold attack upon slavery, and was on the eve of 
his execution. 

The Fugitive Slave Bill had provoked several 
of the Free States to pass Personal Liberty Bills, 
for the protection of their citizens from Southern 

* The Senate was still strongly Democratic, and of the extreme 
pro-slavery stamp, though the Republican minority now numbered 
twenty-four. That minority was soon to be an overwhelming ma- 
jority. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 323 

domination, which, in turn, had roused the pro- 
slavery party to madness. Secession was be- 
ginning to show itself. A presidential canvass 
was just at hand, involving a direct issue between 
freedom and slavery. 

Under these circumstances, when the air was 
filled with alarms, and many were putting for- 
ward plans for peace, Mr. Sumner wrote to a 
friend as follows: — , 

"Washington, January, '60. 

"My DEAR Claflin: Massachusetts has now 
an important post. The greatest difficulty is to 
be true to herself and her own noble history. 

" In the name of Liberty I supplicate you not 
to let her take any backward steps — not an inch, 
not a hai7''s breadth I 

" It is now too late for any fancied advantage 
from such conduct. It only remains that she do 
nothing by which liberty suffers, or by which her 
principles are recanted. Remember well that 
not a word from the legislature can have the 
least influence in averting the impending result ; 
that the only security is the firmness which noth- 
ing can shake. 

" Let the timid cry, but let Massachusetts stand 
stiff — God bless her ! 

" We are on the eve of great events, and this 



324 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

month will try men's souls. But our duty is clear 
as noonday, and bright as the sun. 
" Ever sincerely yours, 

"Charles Sumner." 

John Brown had now found his way into Con- 
gress, — for his " soul " was " marching on," — in 
the Harper's Ferry Investigation, in the Senate, 
on the question of imprisoning a citizen for refus- 
ing to testify in the case. This was March 12, 
1860. 

The investigation arose from the famous enter- 
prise of the '^Hero of Osawatomie," who, October 
17, 1859, with a force of twenty-two men, captured 
the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. 
His object was to set in motion a plan which he 
had formed for the general liberation of the slaves. 
It was charged upon him that he intended to pro- 
voke insurrection, but he solemnly denied having 
any such purpose ; and his word was as good as 
an oath. He hoped to eflfect a peaceful exodus 
of the slaves without rebellion or bloodshed. 
What he had already done in Missouri, in a small 
way, when he " took slaves without the snapping 
of a gun on either side " to Canada, he said he 
wished now to accomplish on a grander scale. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 325 

On his trial — for he was soon overpowered — 
he said, with noble simplicity, that he had only 
carried out the principles of the New Testa- 
ment, " which taught him that all things ' what- 
soever I would that men should do unto me, I 
should do even so to them.' " 

To us his scheme seems a mad one, but there 
can be no doubt of his entire conscientiousness. 
He was a man of heroic nature, a devout Chris- 
tian of the old Puritan style, a perfectly unselfish 
philanthropist. His very enemies were power- 
fully impressed by the nobleness of his demeanor 
in the court-room, in the jail, and at his execu- 
tion. The letters which he wrote to his family 
and to his friends, after his sentence to death, 
show a sweet tenderness of spirit and a cou- 
rageous and peaceful trust in God. 

In prison he was cheerful to the very last, 
and an eye-witness testifies that on the day of 
his execution, December 2, 1859, he walked out 
of the jail " with a radiant countenance, and the 
step of a conqueror." " His face was even joy- 
ous, and it has been remarked that probably his 
was the lightest heart in Charlestown that day. 
A black woman, with a little child in her arms, 



326 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

stood by the door. He stopped a momer t, and, 
stopping, kissed the child affectionately. An- 
other black woman, with a child, as he passed 
along, exclaimed, * God bless you, old man ! I 
wish I could help you ; but I can't.' He looked 
at her with a tear in his eye." * 

Compare this man, so gentle and heroic, the 
friend of the poor and oppressed even unto 
death, with the border ruffians of Missouri, whom 
we have seen, in defiance of all law and all jus- 
tice, attempting to set up slavery in Kansas. 
If we cannot approve John Brown's plan of 
liberation, we can admire his magnanimous spirit 
and his generous purpose ; while, in the other . 
case, both the men and their scheme deserve 
only unmingled condemnation. 

In the case before the Senate, Mr. Sumner 
contended that that body had not the power to 
.compel testimony, under pains and penalties, 
except in cases involving self-defence. 

" This," said he, " is a fearful prerogative ; and 
permit me to say, that, in assuming it, you liken 
yourselves to the Jesuits, at the period of their 
most hateful supremacy, when it was said that 

* The American Conflict, by Horace Greeley. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 327 

their power was a sword whose handle was at 
Rome, and whose point was in the most distant 
places. You take into your hands a sword 
whose handle will be in this Chamber, to be 
clutched by a mere partisan majority, and whose 
point will be in every corner of the republic." 

Ah, why did not these senators, who were 
so anxious for justice to be done, summon wit- 
nesses to testify about the raids into Kansas, and 
the attack upon Lawrence ? But it was when 
Slavery, not Liberty, was in danger, that these 
republicans of the South were aroused. 

Mr. Sumner must have felt a peculiar interest 
in the case before the Senate, for he had met 
John Brown in Boston while there suffering 
from his injuries received from Brooks. Per- 
haps that meeting had some connection with 
the present case. Rev. James Freeman Clarke 
mentions that, calling at that time on Mr. Sum- 
ner at his home in Hancock Street, he found 
him resting in an easy-chair, and with him 
three gentlemen. One was Captain Brown. 
" They were speaking of the assault by Preston 
Brooks, and Mr. Sumner remarked, -^ The coat 
I had on at the time is in that closet. Its col- 



328 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

lar is sti£f with blood. You can see it if you 
please, captain.' Brown arose, went to the 
closet, slowly opened the door, carefully took 
down the coat, and looked at it for a few mo- 
ments with the reverence that a Roman Cath- 
olic regards the relic of a saint. Perhaps the 
sight caused him to feel a still deeper horror 
of slavery, and to take a stronger resolution 
of attacking it in its strongholds. So the blood 
of the martyrs is the seed of the church." 

A few days later, Mr. Sumner spoke again 
upon a similar subject — "An attempt to kid- 
nap a citizen, under order of the Senate." It 
was an attempt to bring Mr. Sanborn, of Concord, 
Mass., to Washington, as a witness in the 
Harper's Ferry ajBfair. Mr. Sumner denied the 
right to do so, and declared the attempt to be 
kidnapping. Two days later, he presented 
twelve different petitions against slavery, con- 
taining fifteen hundred and eighty-nine names. 
The Senate, still in bondage to the slave power, 
laid them on the table. 

A few months after the assault upon Mr. Sum- 
ner, his friend Horace Mann wrote to him, " Seek 
the noblest revenge, which is strength " — 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 329 

strength to resume the contest with slavery. 
One opportunity to deal a heavy blow at that 
system he had improved ; another had come. 

The session was far advanced into June. Mr. 
Sumner had been testing his strength for another 
vigorous encounter. His revenge was sure — 
not personal — his noble nature disdained that, 
— but the revenge of saying again, in his place, 
all that was in his heart for the cause of human 
rights. 

When last he had spoken at any length, it was 
on the subject of admitting Kansas as a Free 
State. That was four years ago, May 19 and 20, 
1856. During his absence the question had 
remained unsettled, and now, on the 4th of June, 
1860, he takes up the theme where he had left 
it. Then he spoke on the " Crime against 
Kansas ; " now he dwells on the " Barbarism 
of Slavery." 

He does so for the best of reasons. He had 
seen that merely dwelling on particular exam- 
ples of the injustice of slavery had not brought 
the desired result. The Nebraska " swindle " had 
been exposed, the crime against Kansas had been 
laid bare ; and still the swindle remained, and 



330 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Kansas was refused her rights. The South was 
growing more rapacious. What should be done ? 

Mr. Sumner's logical mind saw no hope but in 
laying the axe at the root of the tree. He would 
strike at slavery itself, the bitter root whence 
had sprung that harvest of woes which the na- 
tion was reaping. He would carry, not " the war 
into Africa, but Africa into the war." He would 
kill the monster whose arms were sti-angling the 
nation. 

" The Barbarism of Slavery " — the most ap- 
propriate theme, because the most radical. And 
thus did Mr. Sumner enter upon his speech : — 

" Mr. President : Undertaking now, after a 
silence of more than four years, to address the 
Senate on this important subject, I should sup- 
press the emotions natural to such an occasion if 
I did not declare, on the threshold, my gratitude 
to that Supreme Being through whose benign 
care I am enabled, after much suflfering and many 
changes, once again to resume my duties here, 
and to speak for the cause so near my heart. 

'' To the honored Commonwealth whose repre- 
sentative I am, and also to my immediate asso- 
ciates in this body, with whom I enjoy the fellow 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 331 

ship which is found in thinking alike concerning 
the Republic, I owe thanks, which I seize the mo- 
ment to express, for indulgence extended to me 
throughout the protracted seclusion enjoined by 
medical skill; and I trust that it will not be 
thought unbecoming in me to put on record 
here, as an apology for leaving my seat so long- 
vacant, without making way, by resignation, for a 
successor, that I acted under the illusion of an 
invalid, whose hopes for restoration to natural 
health continued against oft-recurring disappoint- 
ment. 

" When last I entered into this debate, it be- 
came my duty to expose the crime against Kan- 
sas, and to insist upon the immediate admission 
of that Territory as a State of this Union, with a 
constitution forbidding slavery. Time has passed, 
but the question remains. Resuming the discus-r 
sion precisely where I left it, I am happy to avow 
that rule of moderatioru which, it is said, may 
venture to fix the boundaries of wisdom itself. 

<' I have no personal griefs to utter ; only a 
vulgar egotism could intrude such into this 
Chamber. I have no personal wrongs to avenge ; 
only a brutish nature could attempt to wield that 



332 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

vengeance which belongs to the Lord. The 
years that have intervened and the graves that 
have opened since I spoke have their voices, 
which I cannot fail to hear. 

" Besides, what am I, what is any man among 
the living or among the dead, compared with the 
question before us ? It is this alone which I shall 
discuss, and I begin the argument with that easy 
victory which is found in charity." 

Mr. Sumner proceeded to say that in his former 
speech he had left untouched the most important 
part of the argument — '' that found in the Char- 
acter of Slavery." 

" This," he added, " is no time for soft words 
or excuses. They may turn away wrath; but 
what is the wrath of man ? This is no time to 
abandon any advantage in the argument. Sena- 
tors sometimes announce that they resist slavery 
on political grounds only, and remind us that they 
say nothing of the moral question. This is 
wrong. Slavery must be resisted not only on 
political grounds, but on all other grounds, wheth- 
er social, economical, or moral. Ours is no holi- 
day contest ; nor is it any strife of rival factions, 
of White and Red Roses, of theatric Neri and 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 333 

Bianchi ; but it is a solemn battle between 
right and wrong, between good and evil. Such 
a battle cannot be fought with rose-water. 
There is austere work to be done, and free- 
dom cannot consent to fling away any of her 
weapons." 

Mr. Sumner assailed slavery as guilty of a five- 
fold wrong : its claiming property in man, — its 
abrogation of marriage, — its abrogation of the 
parental relation, — its closing the gates of knowl- 
edge, — its appropriation of all the toil of its vic- 
tims. 

With reference to the first, he said, — 
" Under what ordinance of Nature or of Na- 
ture's God is one human being stamped an own- 
er, and another stamped a thing ? God is no re- 
specter of persons. . . . God is the Father of 
the human family, and we are all his children. 
Where, then, is the sanction of the pretension by 
which a brother lays violent hands upon a broth- 
er ? To ask these questions is humiliating ; but 
it is clear there can be but one response. . . . On 
al] grounds of reason, and waiving aU questions of 
' positive ' statute, the Vermont judge was nobly 
right, when, rejecting the claim of a slave-master, 



334 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

he said, ' No, not until you show a bill of sale 
from the Almighty.' " 

The closing words are these : — 

" Thus, sir, speaking for freedom in Kansas, I 
have spoken for freedom everywhere, and for 
civilization ; and as the less is contained in the 
greater, so are all arts, all sciences, all econo- 
mies, all refinements, all charities, all delights of 
life, embodied in this cause. You may reject it, 
but it will be only for to-day. The sacred ani- 
mosity of freedom and slavery can end only with 
the triumph of freedom." 

His terrible arraignment of slavery was re- 
ceived with " profound and ominous silence " — 
the silence which precedes the storm. 

The slave party in the Senate, taught a lesson 
by the universal horror — save at the South — 
which followed the assault upon Mr. Sumner after 
his former speech, now determined upon a differ- 
ent policy. They affected to regard the present 
speech as only worthy of contempt, all the while 
feeling the barbed arrows of truth ranlding in 
their bosoms. 

Mr. Chesnut, of South Carolina, was their 
mouthpiece, and vented his spleen in some very 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 335 

choice expressions : " After ranging over Europe, 
crawling through the back doors to whine at the 
feet of British aristocracy, craving pity, and 
reaping a rich harvest of contempt, the slanderer 
of States and men reappears in the Senate. "We 
had hoped to be reheved from the outpourings 
of such vulgar malice. ... In this I am disap- 
pointed. . . . 

" It has been left for this day, for this country, 
for the abolitionists of Massachusetts, to deify the 
incarnation of malice, mendacity, and cowardice. 
. . . We do not intend to contribute, by any con- 
duct on our part, to increase the devotees at the 
shrine of this new idol. We know what is ex- 
pected and what is desired. We are not inclined 
again to send forth the recipient of punishment 
howling through the world, yelping fresh cries of 
slander and malice. These are the reasons which 
I feel it due to myself and others to give to the 
Senate and the country, why we have quietly 
listened to what has been said, and why we can 
take no other notice of the matter J^ 

Why did not the senator from South Carolina 
undertake to disprove the statements made by 
Mr. Sumner? 



336 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

But what it was decided not to do in the Senate 
Chamber, was attempted outside of it. Mr. Sum- 
ner's life was in peril ; and because he refused to 
take any personal precautions, some friends, with- 
out his knowledge, kept guard over his house, and 
escorted him to and from the Capitol. 

At the North, the speech was regarded by 
some as very truthful, indeed, but very impru- 
dent. 

By multitudes it was read with delight, not 
because Southern wickedness was exposed, but 
because the truth had been spoken. The veil 
that concealed the cancer had been torn away ; 
now there was hope of a cure. It was a hide- 
ous spectacle, but abhorrence would rouse to 
action. 

This speech doubtless hastened the crisis, and 
helped to bring on the war. That was, however, 
no fault of the speaker, unless the Saviour was 
at fault when he said, " I bring not peace, but a 
sword." The sword of truth is the necessary 
precursor of true and lasting peace. 

The nation had tried compromises long enough. 
Now was Justice lifting up her voice, to try 
her power, where every other remedy had only 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 337 

aggravated the disease, and left the patient nigher 
to death. 

Thank God, a man had arisen to speak the 
truth, without fear or favor. To-day the nation 
lives, in the new strength of universal liberty. 
22 



338 LIFE OP CHAKLES SUMNEE. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Fanaticism of the Slave Power. — Jefferson 
Davis's Besolutions in the Senate. — Demo- 
cratic National Convention in Charleston. — 
Bell and Everett. — Republicans and Abraham 
Lincoln. — Mr. Lincoln'' s Views. — il/r. Sum- 
ner at the Cooper Institute. — " Republican 
Party.'" — West India Ema7icipation. — 3Ir. 
Sumner. — " Presidential Candidates and the 
Issues.'" — "Mrs. Toodles'' — Mr. Lincoln elect- 
ed. — TJie Rebellion at the Door. — President 
Buchanan's Cure-all. — South Carolina. — Or- 
dinance of Secession. — Fort Sumter. — Sixth 
Massachusetts Regiment at Baltimore. — Speech 
of 3Ir. Sumner to 3IaJor Devens's Company, at 
New York. 

Events are rapidly ripening for a great crisis. 
The country is in violent agitation. The future 
wears a lowering aspect. 

It is plain that the slave power is bent on em- 
ploying the most extreme measure for strength- 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 339 

ening its position. Ttie union of the States is 
of little account in comparison with slavery. 
That must be maintained at all hazards. 

In the Senate, only a few days before Mr. 
Sumner's last speech, Jefferson Davis carried 
through a series of resolutions, one of which 
directly affirmed '^ the constitutional right of any 
citizen of the United States to take his slave 
property into the common Territories, and there 
hold and enjoy the same while the territorial 
condition continues." 

This was a great advance on Mr. Douglas's 
plan of " popular sovereignty," so called, which 
left it optional with a Territory to admit or reject 
slavery. The South wanted more. A slave- 
owner must be allowed to take his -slaves into 
any Territory, whether the majority of the in- 
habitants willed it or not. Slavery must have 
the national patronage and protection. 

This, of course, would divide the Democratic, 
which was also apro-slavery, party, as the North- 
ern wing were not ready to adopt so ultra a 
measure. But the South cared not for that. If 
the Democratic party would not follow their lead, 
they would break with it. 



340 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

Accordingly, when the Democratic National 
Convention met in Charleston, S. C, in April, 
1860, to nominate a President and Vice-Presi- 
dent, a division ensued. The Convention broke 
up in confusion. The party of the majority 
adjourned to Baltimore, June 18 ; that of the 
minority, comprising men of the most extreme 
Southern doctrines, adjourned to Richmond, and 
afterwards to Baltimore. The former nominated 
Stephen A. Douglas for President ; the latter, 
John C. Breckinridge. 

Thus the South was withdrawing more and 
more within itself, even then having in view 
a Southern Confederacy. 

In the mean time, another party, composed 
mainly of old-fashioned Whigs, adopting only the 
Constitution as its platform, and declining to 
take any open stand either for or against slavery, 
had nominated John Bell for President, and Ed- 
ward Everett for Vice-President. Though pro- 
fessedly non-committal, it was really pro-slavery. 
Not to be against slavery, was to be for it. Neu- 
trality was no longer possible. 

There was certainly need of another nomina- 
tion for the Presidency, to represent the party 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 341 

of Freedom. The Republicans had just selected 
Abraham Lincoln as their standard-bearer. 

Mr. Lincoln, in his own admirable way, which 
showed genius as well as philanthropy and pa- 
triotism, had clearly defined his position. 

Mr. Douglas's so-styled ''Popular Sovereign- 
ty " was thus defined : " If any one, man clioose 
to enslave another, no third man shallhe allowed to 
object ! " 

The three parties represented, respectively, by 
Breckinridge, Douglas, and Bell, were assailed 
with a quotation from Scripture, and an ingen- 
ious commentary thereon : "'A house divided 
against itself cannot stand: I believe this gov- 
ernment cannot permanently endure, half slave 
and half free. I do not expect the Union to be 
dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — 
but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. 
It will become all one thing or all the other." 
This was another way of putting Mr. Seward's 
'' irrepressible conflict." 

And thus the parties stood in the spring of 
I860 — three for Slavery, one for Freedom ; 
three for Barbarism, one for Civilization; "all 
one thing, or all the other." 



342 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

Mr. Sumner entered with all his heart into the 
presidential contest. He hailed the advent of a 
new era — the whole house dedicated to Freedom. 

In the month of July, about a month after his 
speech in the Senate, he spoke at the Cooper In- 
stitute, New York, on " The Republican Party : 
its Origin, Necessity, and Purpose." 

This great speech was another blow " at the 
root" — at slavery itself It was full of hope. 
" All good omens," he said, '' are ours. The 
work cannot stop. Quickened by the triumph 
now so near, with a Republican president in 
power. State after State, quitting the condition 
of a Territory, and spurning slavery, will be wel- 
comed into our Plural Unit, and, joining hands 
together, will become a belt of fire girt about 
the Slave States, within which slavery must die, 
— or, happier still, joining hands together, they 
will become to the Slave States a zone of Free- 
dom, radiant, like the ancient cesius of Beauty, 
with transforming power." 

Mr. Sumner would be content with nothing 
short of universal emancipation. His view of 
such a measure may be learned from a letter to a 
public meeting convened to celebrate emancipa 
tion in the British West Indies : — 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER, 343 

" Nothing shows the desperate mendacity of 
the partisans of slavery more than the unfounded 
persistence with which they call this act ' a fail- 
ure.' If it be a failure, then is virtue a failure, 
then is justice a failure, then is humanity a fail- 
ure, then is God himself a failure ; for virtue, 
justice, humanity, and God himself, are all repre- 
sented in this act. 

" The true policy of this world is found in 
justice. Nothing is truer than that injustice, 
besides its essential wickedness, is folly also. 
The unjust man is a fool." 

At a Republican State Convention, at Wor- 
cester, August 29, 1860, Mr. Sumner discussed 
the presidential candidates and the issues. 

He spoke of the candidates, with the single ex- 
ception of Mr. Lincoln, as " differing superficially 
among themselves, but all concurring in friend- 
ship for slavery, and in withstanding its prohibi- 
tion anywhere. . . . The whole trio are no better 
than Mrs. Malaprop's idea of Cerberus, ' three 
gentlemen at once,' and must be encountered to- 
gether." 

Describing the Bell party, he said, — 

" Its plan, so far as known, is this : You will 



344 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

remember that, by the Constitution of the United 
States, in the event of failure to elect by the peo- 
ple, the House of Representatives is empowered 
to choose a president out of the three highest 
candidates for that oflSce. 

" Now, assuming, first, that the Republican can- 
didate will not be elected by the people, — and, 
secondly, assuming that there will be no election 
by the House, — this party, turning next to the 
vice-presidency, assumes, thirdly, that Mr. Ever- 
ett will be one of the two highest candidates for 
the vice-presidency, and, fourthly, that Mr. Ever- 
ett will be elected by the Senate vice-president, 
and then will become president, like John Tyler 
and Millard Fillmore, — not through the death of 
a president, but through a double failure by the 
people and by the House. 

" Such is the calculation by which this band 
of professed Conservatives seek repose for the 
country. 

" Permit me to say that it is equalled only by 
the extravagance of Mrs. Toodles, in the farce. 
Her passion was auctions, where she purchased 
ancient articles of furniture, under the idea that 
they might some day be useful. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 345 

" Once, to the amazement of her husband, she 
brought home a brass door-plate with the name 
of Thompson spelled with a p. ' But what is this 
for ? ' he demanded. ' Why,' said Mrs. Toodles, 
with logic worthy of the Bell party, ' though we 
have been married many years without children, 
it is possible, my dear, that we may have a child ; 
that child may be a daughter, and may live to 
the age of maturity, and she may marry a man 
of the name of Thompson spelled with a p. 
Then how handy it would be to have this door- 
plate in the house ! ' 

" I doubt whether any person really familiar 
with affairs can consider this nomination for the 
vice-presidency of more practical value than 
Mrs. Toodles's brass door-plate, with the name 
of Thompson spelled with a p, picked up at 
an auction. 

" But then, in a certain most difficult contin- 
gency, at the end of a long train of contingencies, 
how handy it must be to have it in the house ! " 

In speaking of the Breckinridge party, he 
said, — 

" I confess myself perplexed between abhor- 
rence for its dogma and respect for its frank- 



346 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

ness. • . . There is something even in criminal 
boldness which we are disposed to admire. "We 
like an open foe, who scorns to hide in deceit, 
and meets us in daylight. . . . And yet this very 
frankness reveals an insensibility to reason and 
humanity, which, when recognized, must add to 
our abhorrence." 

The Douglas party he described as " last in 
character, — for who can respect what we know 
to be a deceit? The statesman founds himself 
on principles ; sometimes it is his office to frame 
expedients; but popular sovereignty, as now 
put forward, is not a principle — 0, no ! not 
even an expedient ; it is nothing but a device, a 
pretext, an evasion, a dodge, a trick, in order to 
avoid the commanding question, whether slavery 
shall be prohibited in the Territories." 

" To protect this ' villany ' [slavery], . . . the 
right of the people to govern themselves is in- 
voked, — forgetful that this divine right can give 
no authority to enslave others, that even the 
people are not omnipotent, and that never do 
they rise so high as when, recognizing the ever- 
lasting laws of Right, they bend to the behests 
of Justice. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 347 

" Far different is the position of Mr. Lincoln, 
who has openly said, ' If I were in Congress, 
and a vote should come up on a question 
whether slavery should be prohibited in a new 
Territory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I 
would vote that it should. That is what I would 
do.' " 

Early in November it was known that Mr. Lin- 
coln had a majority of electoral votes. This at 
once decided the action of the South. They had 
gone into the canvass with the dishonorable in- 
tention of abiding by the result if it should be in 
favor of their candidate — Mr. Breckinridge ; 
otherwise to rebel. 

And this was what they wanted a plausible 
pretext for doing. The South was, therefore, 
rejoiced that Mr. Lincoln was elected. Now they 
could say, The abolitionists have obtained control 
of the government, and we cannot and will not 
submit to them. 

Rebellion was at the door. 

President Buchanan, in his Message, Decem- 
ber 3, spoke of the disturbed and threatening 
condition of the country. He had hard words for 
the North, soft ones for the South. " How easy," 



348 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

said he, " would it be for the American people to 
settle the slavery question forever, and to restore 
peace and harmony to this distracted country ! " 
How so ? By yielding everything to the South. 
That was the meaning of his long tirade against 
Northern anti-slavery movements. 

Blear-eyed man ! how poorly he read the signs 
of the times I how little he comprehended the 
deep questions that were agitating and rending 
the country ! How easy to put down the earth- 
quake ! 

On December 20, South Carolina passed her 
ordinance of secession. Other States speedily 
followed. The president said there was nothing 
he could now do to avert the storm. 

A gracious Providence, on March 4, 1861, put 
a strong, faithful pilot at the helm. He thought 
something could be done. He declared his pur- 
pose to maintain the authority of the government 
over the whole country. 

There had been proposed all sorts of preven- 
tives for the impending storm — plans of concili- 
ation, concession, compromise. In vain ! The 
South was in earnest. 

On the 12th of April, 1861, the signal gun was 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 349 

fired. Fort Sumter was attacked by rebel guns. 
The war was begun, and by the South. 

Three days after, April 15, President Lincoln, 
true to his word, issued a' proclamation for sev- 
enty-five thousand men to suppress the insurrec- 
tion. 

The Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, in quick 
response, was in Baltimore on the 19th, on its 
way to Washington. Attacked by secessionists, 
four of their number were killed, and thirty-six 
wounded. The first blood was shed. 

Mr. Sumner was in Baltimore the day before, 
and narrowly escaped a mob, which was in 
search of him. 

On the 20th, at New York, he met the Third 
Battalion of Massachusetts Rifles, under Major 
Devens, on their route to Fort Henry, and ad- 
dressed them in stirring words : — 

" I cannot see before me so large a number of 
the sons of Massachusetts, already moving to the 
scene of trial, without feeling anew the loss we 
have just encountered : I allude to the death, at 
Baltimore, of devoted fellow-citizens, who had 
sprung forward so promptly at the call of coun- 
try. As I heard that they had fallen, my soul 



350 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

was touched. And yet, when I thought of the 
cause for which they met death, I said to myself, 
that, for the sake of Massachusetts, ay, and for 
their own sake, I would not have it otherwise. 
They have died well, for they died at the post of 
duty, and so dying have become an example and 
a name in history, while Massachusetts, that sent 
them forth, adds new memories to a day already 
famous in her calendar, and links the present 
with the past." 

''It was on the 19th of April that they died, 
and their blood was the first offering of patriot- 
ism in the great cause that snatched them from 
the avocations of peace." 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 351 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Defeat at Bull Run. — 3Ir. Sumner at Worcester. 
— ^'Emancipation our best Weapoii.''^ — Speech 
at New York. — " Tlie Rebellion ; its Origin and 
Mainspring.''^ — One Way of Safety. — Speech 
against returning Fugitive Slaves from the 
Federal Lines. — Eulogy on Colonel Baker. — 
" The Trent.^' — 3Iason and Slidell ;' their Cap- 
ture. — Mr. Sumner urges their Surrender. — 
Neutral Rights. • 

The war went on with varying fortunes. Some 
border States were divided, being largely favor- 
able to the South without actually joining the 
rebel Confederacy, and several additional Slave 
States went over to the enemy. The defeat of 
the Federal forces at Bull Run, July 21, was a 
great shock to the North, but it accomplished the 
important purpose of revealing the real magni- 
tude of the task of subduing the South. 

In October, 1861, at the Republican State Con- 



352 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

vention at Worcester, while afiairs were in a 
condition of mingled hope and fear, Mr. Sumner 
boldly announced this proposition — Emancipa- 
tion our best weapon. He saw that slavery was 
at once the strength and weakness of the enemy, 
and he would invoke the war power of the 
government to abolish it. The right, he said, 
was unquestionable. The necessity was urgent. 

" It is often said that war will make an end of 
slavery. This is probable. But it is surer still 
that the overthrow of slavery will make an end 
of the war. 

"If I am correct in this averment, which I 
believe beyond question, then do reason, justice, 
and policy unite, each and all, in declaring that 
the war must be brought to bear directly on the 
grand conspirator and omnipresent enemy. 

" Not to do so is to take upon ourselves all the 
weakness of slavery, while we leave to the rebels 
its boasted resources of military strength. 

" Not to do so is to squander life and treasure 
in a vain masquerade of battle, without practical 
result. 

" Not to do so is blindly to neglect the plain- 
est dictates of economy, humanity, and common 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 353 

sense, — and, alas ! simply to let slip the dogs of 
war on a mad chase over the land, never to stop 
until spent with fatigue or sated with slaughter. 

" Believe me, fellow- citizens, I know all im- 
agined difficulties and unquestioned responsibili- 
ties. But, if you are in earnest^ the difficulties 
will at once disappear, and the responsibilities 
are such as you will gladly bear. This is not the 
first time that a knot hard to untie was cut by 
the sword ; and we all know that danger flees 
before the brave man. Believe that you can, 
and you can. The will only is needed. Courage 
now is the highest prudence. 

" It is not necessary even, borrowing a familiar- 
phrase, to carry the war into Africa. It will be 
enough if we carry Africa into the war, in any 
form, any quantity, any way. The moment this 
is done, rebellion will begin its bad luck, and the 
Union become secure forever." 

Though this speech was received with great 
applause when delivered, the public mind was 
divided as to the expediency of immediate 
emancipation. Then, as many times since, Mr. 
Sumner was thought by not a few to be prema- 
ture and unpractical ; but then, ere long, as well 
23 



354 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNEE. 

as since, his most advanced and objectionable 
propositions were subsequently adopted. The 
nation was compelled to adopt emancipation as 
necessary to success. 

The next month he urged the same proposi- 
tion, with new arguments and illustrations, at an 
immense meeting in New York. His theme was. 
The Rebellion ; its Origin and Mainspring. 

He called slavery " the ruling idea " of the 
rebellion. " It is slavery that marshals these 
hosts and breathes into their embattled ranks 
its own barbarous fire. It is slavery that stamps 
its character alike upon officers and men. It is 
slavery that inspires all, from general to trum- 
peter. It is slavery that speaks in the word of 
command, and sounds in the morning drum-beat. 
It is slavery that digs trenches and builds hostile 
forts. It is slavery that pitches its wicked tents, 
and stations its sentries over against the national 
Capitol. It is slavery that sharpens the bayonet 
and runs the bullet, — that points the cannon, and 
scatters the shell, blazing, bursting with death. 
Wherever the rebellion shows itself, whatever 
form it takes, whatever thing it does, whatever 
it meditates, it is moved by slavery; nay, the 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 355 

rebellion is slavery itself, incarnate, living, acting, 
raging, robbing, murdering, according to the es- 
sential law of its being. 

'' Nor is this all. The rebellion is not only ruled 
by slavery, but, owing to the peculiar condition 
of the Slave States, it is, for the moment, accord- 
ing to their instinctive boast, actually re-enforced 
by this institution. 

" As the fields of the South are cultivated by 
slaves, . . . the white freemen are at liberty to 
play the part of rebels. The slaves toil at home, 
while the masters work at rebellion; and thus, 
by singular fatality, is this doomed race, without 
taking up arms, actually engaged in feeding, sup- 
porting, succoring, and invigorating those bat- 
tling for their enslavement. 

" But how shall the rebellion be crushed ? . . . 
You will strike where the blow is most felt ; nor 
will you miss the precious opportunity. The ene- 
my is before you ; nay, he comes out in ostenta- 
tious challenge, and his name is Slavery. You 
can vindicate the Union only by his prostration. 
Slavery is the very Goliath of the rebellion, 
armed with coat of mail, with helmet of brass 
upon the head, greaves of brass upon the legs, a 



356 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

target of brass between the shoulders, and with 
the staif of his spear like a weaver's beam. But 
a stone from a simple sling will make the giant 
fall upon his face to the earth. 

" Amid all surrounding perils there is one only 
which I dread. It is the peril from some new 
surrender to slavery, some fresh recognition of 
its power, some present dalliance with its intoler- 
able pretensions. 

" Worse than any defeat, or even the flight of 
an army, would be this abandonment of princi- 
ple. From all such peril, good Lord, deliver us ! 

" And there is one way of safety, clear as sun- 
light, pleasant as the paths of peace. Over its 
broad and open gate is written. Justice. In that 
little word is victory. Do justice, and you will 
be twice victors ; for so you will subdue the 
rebel master, while you elevate the slave. 

" Do justice frankly, generously, nobly, and 
you will find strength instead of weakness, while 
all seeming responsibility disappears in obedience 
to God's eternal law. Do justice, though the 
heavens fall. But they will not fall. Every act 
of justice becomes a new pillar of the Universe, 
or it may be a new link of that 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 357 

' golden, everlasting chain, 
■\VTiose strong embrace holds heaven, and earth, and main.' " 

The opinion that safety was through emancipa- 
tion was gaining ground every day. The inhu- 
man practice of some of our generals in refusing 
to receive fugitive slaves within their camps, and 
in thrusting them out of their lines, awakened 
general indignation. 

Mr. Sumner brought up the subject in the Sen- 
ate, December 2, 1861, and said with reference to 
one general, " I take the liberty of saying — and 
I wish that my words may reach his distant head- 
quarters — that every fugitive slave he surren- 
ders will hereafter rise in judgment against him 
with a shame which no possible victory can re- 
move." 

On the 11th of that month, Mr. Sumner deliv- 
ered, in the Senate, a most eloquent eulogy upon 
Colonel Baker, late a senator from Oregon. 

In the unfortunate engagement at Ball's Bluff, 
October 21, 1861, Colonel Baker was sent by his 
superior officer to encounter a far stronger rebel 
force. He was a most brave as well as skilful 
commander, and did all that mortal could do in so 
unequal a contest. But he was overpowered by 
numbers, and fell, shot through the head. 



358 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

In his eulogy, Mr. Sumner said of him, — 

" In the Senate he took at once the post of 
orator. His voice was not full and sonorous, but 
sharp and clear. It was penetrating rather than 
commanding, and yet, when touched by his 
ardent nature, became sympathetic and even 
musical. Countenance, body, and gesture, all 
shared the unconscious inspiration of his voice, 
and he went on, master of his audience, master 
also of himself. All his faculties were com- 
pletely at command. Ideas, illustrations, words, 
seemed to come unbidden and range in harmoni- 
ous forms — as in the walls of ancient Thebes 
each stone took its proper place of its own ac- 
cord, moved only by the music of a lyre. 

" His fame as a speaker was so familiar even 
before he appeared among us, that it was some- 
times supposed he might lack those solid pow- 
ers without which the oratorical faculty itself 
exercises only a transient influence. 

" But his speech on this floor in reply to a 
slaveholding conspirator, now an open rebel, 
showed that his matter was as good as his 
manner, and that, while master of fence, he was 
also master of ordnance. His oratory was grace- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 359 

fill, sharp, and flashing, like a cimeter ; but his 
argument was powerful and sweeping, like a 
battery. 

" Another speech showed "him in a different 
character. It was his instant reply to the 
Kentucky senator — John C. Breckinridge — not 
then expelled from this body. 

" The occasion was peculiar. A senator, with 
treason in his heart, if not on his lips, had just 
sat down. Our lamented senator, who had 
entered the Chamber direct from his camp, rose 
at once to reply. He began simply and calmly : 
but, as he proceeded, the fervid soul broke forth 
in words of surprising power. On the former 
occasion he presented the well-ripened fruits of 
study ; but now he spoke with the spontaneous 
utterance of his natural eloquence, meeting the 
poHshed traitor at every point with weapons 
keener and brighter than his own. 

" But the question is painfully asked, ' Who 
was author of this tragedy, now filling the Sen- 
ate Chamber, as already it has filled the country, 
with mourning ? ' There is a strong desire to 
hold somebody responsible, where so many per- 
ished unprofitably. But we need not appoint 



360 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

committees, or study testimony, to kno"\v^ pre> 
cisely who took this precious life. 

" That great criminal is easily detected, — still 
erect and defiant, without concealment or dis- 
guise. The guns, the balls, and the men that 
fired them, are of little importance. It is the 
power behind all, saying, ' The State, it is I,' that 
took this precious life ; and this power is slavery . 
The nine balls that slew our departed brother 
came from slavery. Every gaping wound of his 
slashed bosom testifies against slavery. The 
brain so rudely shattered has its own voice, and 
the tongue so suddenly silenced in death speaks 
now with more than living eloquence. To hold 
others responsible is to hold the dwarf agent 
and dismiss the giant principal. Nor shall we 
do great service, if, merely criticising some 
local blunder, we leave untouched that fatal for- 
bearance through which the weakness of the 
rebellion is changed into strength, and the 
strength of our armies is changed into weak- 
ness. 

" May our grief to-day be no hollow pageant, 
nor expend itself in this funeral pomp ! It 
must become a motive and impulse to patriotic 
action. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 361 

•' But patriotism itself, that commanding chari- 
ty, embracing so many other charities, is only a 
name, and nothing else, unless we resolve, 
calmly, plainly, solemnly, that slavery, the bar- 
barous enemy of our country, the irreconcilable 
foe of our Union, the violator of our Constitu- 
tion, the disturber of our peace, the vampire 
of our national life, sucking its best blood, the 
assassin of our children, and the murderer of our 
dead senator, shall be struck down. 

" And the way is easy. The just avenger is at 
hand, with weapon of celestial temper. Let it 
be dra,wn. Until this is done, the patriot, dis- 
cerning clearly the secret of our weakness, can 
only say, sorrowfully, — 

' bleed, bleed, poor country ! 
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, 
For goodness dares not check thee.' " * 

It must not be supposed that Mr. Sumner 
stood alone as an early champion of emanci- 
pation, as an act of justice and a military ne- 
cessity. President Lincoln doubtless believed in 
it even then. The question of time probably 
made the chief difference between them. 

* Macbeth, Act iv., Scene iii. 



362 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 

But it was well that Mr. Sumner was thus pro- 
nounced in his opinion, and that he reiterated it 
in different places with so much earnestness. 
The subject was kept distinct before the public 
eye, and sank deep into the public heart ; and 
thus the way was made clear for emancipation 
when it came, and for a final adjustment of the 
whole question of our duty to the colored race. 
The public conscience and judgment were edu- 
cated. 

In December, 1861, there came up in the Sen- 
ate a case which awakened intense interest in 
this country and in England. At one time it 
threatened war between the two countries. It 
was the case of the Trent, a British steamship, 
running between Havana and England. 

Earl}^ in the rebellion, two Confederate envoys, 
James M. Mason, of Virginia, and John Slidell, 
of Louisiana, were accredited, the first to Great 
Britain, the second to France, in the hope of 
" arraying the two great nations against the 
United States, and enlisting them optmly in sup- 
port of" the Confederate government. 

'^ These two old men," said Mr. Sumner, in the 
Senate, January 9, 1861, " with their two younger 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 363 

associates, stole from Charleston (October 12, 
X861) on board a rebel steamer, and, under 
cover of darkness and storm, running the sur- 
rounding blockade, and avoiding the neutral 
cruisers, succeeded in reaching the neutral 
island of Cuba, where, with open display, and 
the knowledge of the British consul, they em- 
barked on board the British mail-packet Trent, 
bound for St. Thomas, where they were to em- 
bark for England. . . . 

" While on their way, the pretended ambassa- 
dors were arrested (on the 8th of November) by 
Captain Wilkes, of the United States steamer San 
Jacinto, . . . who, on this occasion, acted without 
instructions from his government." 

They were brought to the United States, and 
confined in Fort Warren, near Boston. 

This event caused great joy throughout the 
North. Everybody smiled at the arrest of the 
rebel mischief-makers, so suddenly and unex- 
pectedly brought to grief Everybody hoped 
they might long enjoy the hospitalities of their 
prison-home. The Secretary of the Navy fully 
justified the capture. 

But it soon appeared that there was another 



364 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

side to the question. The British government 
was greatly incensed at the act of Captain 
Wilkes. It was gross " outrage " to a British 
craft to fire a shell across her bow, and abstract 
four of her passengers. The unconditional sur- 
render of the captured party was required, as a 
proper atonement for the '' insult." France con- 
curred in the demand as a just one. War was 
threatened in case of a refusal. 

We were in a dilemma. The thought of re- 
leasing the two conspirators, whom we held so 
nicely in our grasp, and sending them forth again 
on their treasonable mission, was far from agreea- 
ble ; it was positively humiliating. It must 
not be. 

But what if a war with England should be 
added to the one we were now staggering under ! 
The President and his cabinet took the matter 
into grave consideration. 

While the case was yet pending, and it was 
believed that our government favored the sur- 
render of the men, the subject came before the 
Senate. Mr. Hale strongly opposed the surren- 
der as " a fatal act." Mr. Sumner took the oppo- 
site ground, in a speech which reviewed the 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 365 

whole question of international law, and the 
practice of the United States and Great Britain, 
relative to the case. He declared that " British 
precedents and practice " migJd justify the act 
of Captain Wilkes, and that these had probably 
led him '' into his mistake." 

But on the other hand, he said, '' The seizure 
of the rebel emissaries on board a neutral sJdp 
cannot be justified, according to declared Ameri- 
can principles and practice. There is no single 
point where the seizure is not questionable." 
There was " the constant, uniform, unhesitating 
practice of his own country on the ocean, con- 
ceding always the greatest immunities to neutral 
ships, unless sailing to blockaded ports, refusing 
to consider despatches contraband of war, refus- 
ing to consider persons other than soldiers or 
officers as contraband of war, and protesting 
always against an adjudication of personal rights 
by summary judgment of the quarter-deck." 

The vessel should have been taken into port to 
undergo a judicial trial. It was not allowable 
that a navy officer should substitute himself for 
such tribunal. 

The government took this view of the case, 



366 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

and set the prisoners at liberty. Thus war was 
happily averted. 

Mr. Sumner was the more earnest for such a 
settlement, as opening the way for great '^ re- 
forms in maritime law/' so that war might be 
'' despoiled of its most vexatious prerogatives, 
while innocent neutrals are exempt from its tor- 
ments." He would have " privateering," with 
" contraband of war," and the '^ right of search," 
abandoned. " Commercial blockade " should dis- 
appear, " to complete the triumph of neutral 
rights." 

'' Such a change, just in proportion to its ac- 
complishment, will be a blessing to mankind, 
inconceivable in grandeur. The statutes of the 
sea, thus refined and elevated, will be agents of 
peace instead of agents of war. Ships and car- 
goes will pass unchallenged from shore to shore, 
and those terrible belligerent rights, under which 
the commerce of the world has so long suffered, 
will cease from troubling. . . . 

" Meanwhile through all present excitement, 
amidst all trials, beneath all threatening clouds, 
it only remains for us to uphold the perpetual 
policy of the republic, and to stand fast on the 
ancient ways." 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 367 

This speech, so thoroughly American in its 
spirit, and yet exhibiting so catholic and benefi- 
cent a statesmanship, tended greatly to elevate 
Mr. Sumner in the public esteem. Even those 
who had depreciated him as a man of " one idea " 
were convinced of their mistake. 

The public generally, in spite of their preju- 
dices, readily acquiesced in the peaceful solution 
of a vexed and perilous question, and the govern- 
ment was left free to give its undivided energies 
to the suppression of the rebellion. 



368 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Becognition of Hmjti and Liberia. — Confiscation 
of Rebel Property. — Proclamation of Emanci- 
pation. — 3Ir. Sumner in Faneuil Hall. — 
*' Bridge of Gold." — Aid of the Slaves neces- 
sary to Success. — Providential JudAjments. — 
Changed Character of the War. — Jir. Sumner^s 
He-election. — Contrast. — Privateers. — Our 
Foreign Pelations. — Recognition of a Slave 
Republic denounced. 

So long as slavery ruled in the national 'coun- 
cils, the governments of Hayti and Liberia could 
obtain no recognition at Washington. Southern 
members of Congress had denounced such a prop- 
osition as nothing less than " treason," and as 
sure, if carried out, " to convulse the Union." 

But with the inauguration of the Republican 
party in Washington, a new era came in. Presi- 
dent Lincoln, in his Message, December, 1861, 
recommended the long-neglected duty. " If," 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 369 

said he, " any good reason exists why we should 
longer persevere in withholding our recognition 
of the independence and sovereignty of Hayti 
and Liberia, I am unable to discern it." 

Mr. Sumner was equally " unable," and in a 
speech in the Senate, April 23, 1862, he strongly 
urged the measure, as an act of justice to those 
nations, and as beneficial to our own commerce. 

Dark-hued ambassadors from Hayti and Li- 
beria have appeared in Washington, but as yet 
the heavens have not fallen. They have taken 
their places beside the representatives of the 
most powerful nations of the world, and have 
received both civil and social recognition. Thus 
one more great advance is made in the interests 
of humanity. 

As the war advanced, Mr. Sumner continually 
urged the necessity of weakening the rebellion 
by the confiscation of rebel property, and the 
freeing of slaves as far as it could be done. He 
would have indemnity for the past, and security 
for the future. 

He argued that " municipal law under the 
Constitution, and the rights of war under inter- 
national law," authorized the government to 
24 



370 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

deal with the rebels as '' criminals aiid ene- 
mies." 

It was now far into the second year of the war. 
The contest had been attended with many dis- 
asters. The rebellion had proved to be difficult 
to master. A new method must be tried. 

On the 22d of September, 1862, President 
Lincoln put forth a proclamation of partial eman- 
cipation, declaring that, on the first day of Janu- 
ary, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any 
State, or designated part of a State, then in 
rebellion, should be forever free. This was fol- 
lowed, January 1, 1863, by an absolute proclama- 
tion of freedom. 

Soon after the first proclamation, Mr. Sumner, 
at a meeting in Faneuil Hall, presided over by 
Hon. WiUiam Claflin, defended the measure. 
" Thank God," said he, " for what is already 
done, and let us all take heart as we go forward 
to uphold this great edict ! For myself I accept 
the proclamation without note or comment. . . . 

" Fellow- citizens, a year has passed since I 
addressed you ; but, during this time, what 
events for warning and encouragement ! Amidst 
vicissitudes of war, the cause of human freedom 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 371 

has steadily and grandly advanced, — not, per- 
haps, as you could desire, yet it is the only cause 
which has not failed. Slavery and the Black 
Laws all abolished in the national capital ; sla- 
very interdicted in all the national territory; 
Hayti and Liberia recognized as independent re- 
publics in the family of nations ; the slave-trade 
placed under the ban of a new treaty with Great 
Britain ; all persons in the military and naval 
service prohibited from returning slaves or sit- 
ting in judgment on the claims of a master ; the 
slaves of rebels emancipated by coming within 
our lines ; a tender of compensation for the abo- 
lition of slavery : such are some of Freedom's 
triumphs in the recent Congress. Amidst all 
doubts and uncertainties of the present hour, let 
us think of these things and be comforted. I 
cannot forget, that, when I last spoke to you, I 
urged the liberation of the slaves of rebels . . . 
and I further suggested, if need were, a bridge 
of gold for the retreating fend* And now all 
that I proposed is embodied in the legislation of 
the country, as the supreme law of the land." 

* President Lincoln, according to a resolution recommended by 
him to Congress, March 6, 1862, and passed April 2, issued a proc- 



372 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

In another part of the speech he said : — 

" Wherever I turn in this war I find the Afri- 
can ready to be our saviour. 

" If you ask for strategy, I know nothing better 
than that of the slave Robert Small, who brought 
the rebel steamer Planter, with its armament, out 
of Charleston, and surrendered it to our commo- 
dore as prize of war. 

" If you ask for successful courage, I know 
nothing better than that of the African Till- 
man, who rose upon a rebel prize crew, and, 
overcoming them, carried the ship into New 
York. 

" If you ask for heroism, you will find it in 
that nameless African on board the Pawnee, who, 
while passing shell from the magazine, lost both 
his legs by a ball, but, still holding a shell, cried 
out, ' Pass up the shell — never mind me ; my 
time is up.' 

" If you ask for fidelity, you will find it in that 
slave, also without a name, who pointed out the 

lamation, April 10, offering pecuniary compensation to any State 
that would adopt gradual emancipation. This was the " bridge of 
gold ; " but no State ever set foot upon it. 

At the beginning of the next session, another, and the last plan 
of like character, was proposed, but failed to pass. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 373 

road of safety to the harassed, retreating army 
of the Potomac. 

" And if you ask for evidence of desire for 
freedom, you will find it in the little slave-girl, 
journeying North, whom Banks took up on his 
cannon. 

" But ... it is not enough to show that slaves 
can render important assistance, by labor, by in- 
formation, or by arms. . . . The case is stronger 
stiU. Without the aid of the slaves this war cannot 
be ended successfully. 

" If the instincts of patriotism did not prompt 
this support [of the proclamation], I should find 
a sufficient motive in the duty which we all 
owe to the Supreme Ruler, God Almighty, 
whose visitations upon our country are now so 
fearful. 

'• Not rashly would I make myself the inter- 
preter of His will; and yet I am not blind. Ac- 
cording to a venerable maxim of jurisprudence, 
' Whoso would have equity must do equity ; ' 
and God plainly requires equity at our hands. 
We cannot expect success while setting at 
nought this requirement, proclaimed in His di- 
vine character, in the dictates of reason, and in 



374 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

the examples of history, — proclaimed also in 
the events of this protracted war. 

^•' Terrible judgments have fallen upon the 
country : plagues have been let loose, rivers 
have been turned into blood, and there is a great 
cry throughout the land, for there is not a house 
where there is not one dead ; and at each judg- 
ment we seem to hear that terrible voice which 
sounded in the ears of Pharaoh : ' Thus saith 
the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, 
that they may serve me.' 

" I know not how others are touched, but 1 
cannot listen to the frequent tidings of calamity 
descending upon our arms, of a noble soldier lost 
to his country, of a bereavement at the family 
hearth, of a youthful son brought home dead to his 
mother, without catching the warning, '■ Let my 
people go ! ' Nay, every wound, every sorrow, 
every hardship that we are compelled to bear in 
taxation, in want, in derangement of business, 
has a voice crying, ' Let my people go ! ' 

^^ And now, thank God, the word is spoken ! — ■ 
greater word was seldom spoken. Emancipation 
has begun, and our country is already elevated 
and glorified. The war has not changed in object, 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 375 

but it has changed in character. Its object now, 
as at the beginning, is simply to put down the 
rebellion ; but its character is derived from the 
new force at length enlisted, stamping itself 
upon all that is done, and absorbing the whole 
war to itself." 

" We have been trying to do without justice," 
said Ralph Waldo Emerson, at the beginning of 
the war. - Justice at last had its opportunity. 

The time had now arrived for the election of a 
senator for Massachusetts, Mr. Sumner's second 
term having expired. 

In consequence of his early and earnest advo- 
cacy of emancipation, there were many who sought 
to prejudice the public mind against him, with 
a view to defeat his re-election. But in vain. 

January 15, 1863, he received an almost unan- 
imous vote in the Senate and the House. Mas- 
sachusetts was true to herself. 

How great the contrast between Mr. Sumner's 
first election and first appearance in Congress, 
and the present ! Then he came in by a majority 
of two, now by almost a unanimity ; and in the 
Senate, he then stood almost alone, excluded 
from committees, denied parliamentary cour 



376 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

tesies and the common social civilities, and bru* 
tally assaulted. Now the slave power was de- 
throned, its leaders in the government gone. 
Congress anti-slavery, himself chairman of the 
most important committee in the Senate, and 
an acknowledged leader. All in twelve years. 

In the conduct of the war Mr. Sumner always 
opposed any kind of support which was unjust 
and dishonorable. When the government sought 
to carry through Congress a bill authorizing 
the issuing of letters of marque and reprisal, 
for the purpose of damaging the rebels on 
the ocean, Mr. Sumner strongly opposed it ; 
and when it passed, he urged the President 
not to avail himself of it. His counsels pre- 
vailed. 

The bill was, he said, in plain terms, " a bill 
to authorize privateers, — that is, private-armed 
vessels licensed to cruise against the commerce 
of an enemy, and looking to booty for support, 
compensation, and salary. It is by booty that 
owners, officers, and crews are to be paid. 
Booty is the motive power and life-spring. . . . 
Picture to yourselves the ocean traversed by 
licensed rovers seeking prey. The Dutch ad- 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 377 

miral carried a broom at his mast-head as the 
boastful sign that he swept the seas. The pri- 
vateer might carry a scourge. Wherever a sail 
appears, there is a chase ; the signal gun is 
fired, and the merchantman submits to visitation 
"and search. Delay is the least of the conse- 
quences. Contention, irritation, humiliation en- 
sue, all calculated to engender ill-feelings, which, 
beginning with individuals, may embrace country 
and government, . . , The speaking-trumpet of 
a reckless privateer may contribute to that dis' 
cord which is the herald of bloodshed itself." 

The war had now been waged more than two 
years, when rumors came that England and 
France designed to recognize the Southern Con- 
federacy as an independent nation. Our foreign 
relations were therefore of the most critical char» 
acter. Such recognition would change the whole 
aspect of the war, and place us in a most un- 
fortunate position. 

Mr. Sumner, as holding in the Senate so im- 
portant a relation to foreign affairs, was invited 
to speak in New York upon the question at 
issue. He described our *' perils from Eng. 
land and France," and especially the " impoa? 



378 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

sibility of any recognition of a new power with 
slavery as a corner-stone." 

" An aroused public opinion, ' the world's col- 
lected will/ and returning reason in England 
and France, will see to it that civilization is 
saved from this shock, and the nations them- 
selves from the terrible retribution which sooner 
or later must surely attend it. 

" No power can afford to stand up before man- 
kind and openly vote a new and untrammelled 
charter to injustice and cruelty. God is an un- 
sleeping avenger ; nor can armies, fleets, bul- 
warks, or ' towers along the steep,' prevail 
against this mighty avenger. To any applica- 
tion for this unholy recognition there is but one 
word the Christian powers can utter. It is 
simply and austerely, ' No,' with an emphasis 
that shall silence argument and extinguish hope 
itself. And this proclamation should go forth 
swiftly. Every moment of hesitation is a mo- 
ment of apostasy, casting its lengthening shadow 
of dishonor. Not to discourage is to encour- 
age ; not to blast is to bless. Let this simple 
word be uttered, and slavery will slink away, 
with a mark on its forehead, like Cain, a per. 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 379 

petual vagabond, forever accursed ; and the 
malediction of the Lord shall descend upon it, 
saying, ' Among these nations shalt thou find 
no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have 
rest ; but the Lord shall give thee there a 
trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sor- 
row of mind ; and thy life shall hang in doubt 
before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, 
and shalt have none assurance of thy life ; in 
the morning thou shalt say. Would God it were 
even, and at even thou shalt say. Would God 
it were morning.' 

" And yet, British statesmen, forgetting for 
the moment all moral distinctions, forgetting 
God, who will not be forgotten, gravely an- 
nounce that our cause must fail. 

" Alas, individual wickedness is too often suc- 
cessful ; but a pretended nation, suckled in 
wickedness and boasting its wickedness, a new 
Sodom, with all the guilt of the old, waiting 
to be blasted, and yet, in barefaced effrontery, 
openly seeking the fellowship of Christian pow- 
ers, is doomed to defeat. Toleration of such 
a pretension is practical atheism. Chronology 
and geography are both offended. Piety stands 



380 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

aghast. In this age of light, and in countries 
boasting of civilization, there can be no place 
for its barbarous plenipotentiaries. As well ex- 
pect crocodiles crawling on the pavements of 
London and Paris, or the carnivorous idols of 
Africa installed for worship in Westminster Ab- 
bey and Notre Dame." 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 381 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Foreign Rdations. — Domestic Relations. — Recon- 
struction of the Rebel States. — Striking at 
Slavery. — Rebuke to Young Men at Albany. — 
Final Repeal of Fugitive Slave Bills. — Happy 
Change. — Practical Legislation. — Treatment 
of Freedmen. — Freedmen's Bureau. — The 
Coastwise Traffic in Slaves. 

During the period of the war, Mr. Sumner, as 
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, 
where he was placed in 1861, when the new era 
came in, held an intimate relation to the govern- 
ment, and was constantly consulted on foreign 
affairs by the President and Secretary of State. 
He was an authority in such matters. His pro- 
found acquaintance with international law, his 
accurate knowledge of European affairs, and his 
intimacy with foreign jurists and statesmen, pre- 
eminently qualified him to be a wise counsellor. 

But, as we have seen, he was equally at home 



382 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

in domestic matters. He profoundly compre- 
hended the spirit of our government, the intent 
of the Constitution, as founded in universal, im- 
partial justice, and sought to conform the actual 
legislation to its principles. Republicanism with 
him was more than a party — it was an idea. It 
represented simple justice as applied to govern- 
ment. Before the war, he had labored to expel 
slavery, as a foreign element ; and, now that re- 
bellion had opened the way for perfect liberty, he 
was constantly on the watch to follow up with 
new safeguards every advance towards that con- 
summation. He would cut off the retreating foe 
from any way of return. 

The question had arisen. What shall be done 
with the rebel States ? 

In February, 1862, he had already introduced 
the subject of reconstruction, in a series of reso- 
lutions, in which he declared the right of Con- 
gress " to assume complete jurisdiction " in the 
rebel States, and " to establish therein republican 
forms of government under the Constitution." 

The speech which he had intended to make in 
defence of his views was published as an article 
in a magazine, October, 1863. In it he showed 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 383 

himself to be more practical than many who re- 
garded him as little more than an idealist or en- 
thusiast. 

Dismissing all fine-spun theories about the 
status of the rebel States, he looked at the actual 
condition of the governments and people of those 
States. In fact, there existed no legal govern- 
ments. The majority of the people were dis- 
loyal. Therefore, there existing no government 
that could be recognized, the whole region fell at 
once, and of necessity, under the jurisdiction of 
Congress. " The whole broad rebel region is 
tabula rasa, a clean slate, where Congress, un- 
der the Constitution of the United States, may 
write the laws." 

" Behold the rebel States in arms against that 
paternal government to which, as the supreme 
condition of constitutional existence, they owe 
duty and love ; and behold all legitimate powers, 
executive, legislative, and judicial, in these 
States, abandoned and vacated. It only remains 
that Congress should enter and assume the proper 
jurisdiction." And that, he said, would be in 
the interests of liberty ; for slavery, being a 
local, a municipal institution, fell, of necessity 



384 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

with the fall of the power which sustained it. 
The nation, through Congress, could know noth- 
ing of slavery. 

To make this more secure, and to breathe the 
breath of freedom upon every part of the country, 
a constitutional amendment, prohibiting slavery 
throughout the national domain, was introduced 
in the House of Representatives towards the 
close of 1863. In the Senate, Mr. Sumner was 
its earnest supporter. It became a part of the 
Constitution December 18, 1865, — not, alas! till 
it was beyond Mr. Lincoln's power to know the 
result which he had looked forward to with so 
much interest. 

But Mr. Sumner was not willing to await the 
slow process of a Constitutional Amendment, 
which, after the action of Congress, would have 
to be submitted to all the States. 

^' Beyond my general desire." he said, " to see 
an act of universal emancipation, at once and for- 
ever settling this great question, . . . there are 
two other objects ever present to my mind as a 
practical legislator : First, to strike at slavery, 
wherever I can hit it ; and secondly, to clear the 
statute-book of all existing supports of slavery, 



LiIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 385 

SO that this great wrong may fiucl nothing there 
to which it can cling for life. . . . 

" So long as a single slave continues anywhere 
beneath the flag of the Republic, I am unwilling 
to rest. For well I know the vitality of slavery, 
with its infinite capacity of propagation, and how 
little slavery it takes to make a Slave State with 
all the cruel pretensions of slavery." 

He would therefore have immediate action, in 
advance of the slower method of amendment. 

As a specimen of Mr, Sumner's idea of " strik- 
ing at slavery wherever he could hit it," whether 
North or South, in its spirit or practice, we 
give his letter to the Young Men's Association, 
of Albany, within about a week after this speech. 
The young gentlemen, it appears, excluded from 
their lecture-room all persons not of the " ap- 
proved color," and then invited Mr. Sumner 
to speak on Lafayette, His reply was as fol- 
lows : — 

" You invite me ' to deliver an address on 
Lafayette. ... In view of a recent incident in 
the history of your Association, I am astonished 
at the request. 

" I cannot consent to speak of Lafayette, who 
25 



386 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

was not ashamed to fight beside a hlach soldier, to 
an audience too delicate to sit beside a black citi- 
zen. I cannot speak of Lafayette, who was a 
friend of universal liberty, under the auspices 
of a society which makes itself the champion of 
caste and vulgar prejudice." A just rebuke to 
the delicate Albanians. 

Three days after, Mr. Sumner followed up his 
attack on slavery in a bill for the " final repeal of 
all Fugitive Slave Acts." He had given to the 
Senate notice of his intention to that effect as 
early as December 10, 1863, About two months 
later (February 8, 1864) he introduced a bill. 
But the subject met with delay from various 
causes, until June 23, when it came up on a bill 
from the House for the repeal of all Fugitive 
Slave Acts, which was passed that day, and 
which, on the 28th, 1864, by Mr. Lincoln's signa- 
ture, became the law of the land. 

This was a hard blow at slavery, a glorious 
triumph of freedom. No more hunting of men 
and women through the free North, — no more 
dragging them trembling from their homes or 
hiding-places to Southern plantations, — no more 
converting Northern court-houses into slave-pens, 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 387 

and no more surrounding them with ropes and 
chains, under which judges must creep into the 
halls of justice, — no more degrading a State" 
soldiery into the base service of helping to en- 
slave human beings, — no more bowing the knee 
to imperious masters. 

The nation had swept away one more relic of 
barbarism, and taken one more long step in the 
direction of universal freedom. 

In urging this measure, Mr. Sumner, in the 
course of the debate upon it, replied to the 
objection, that it was not " practical." " If it 
be practical to relieve the people from an uncon- 
stitutional and oppressive statute ; if it be practi- 
cal to take away a badge of subjugation imposed 
by slave-masters during a brutal supremacy ; 
if it be practical to secure the good name of the 
Republic, still suffering immeasurably from this 
outrage ; if it be practical, at this moment of 
our own severe trial, to substitute justice for op- 
pression, and thus secure the favor of Provi- 
dence ; and finally, if it be practical to strike at 
slavery wherever we can hit it, and to relieve 
ourselves of this terrible wrong, — then is this 
measure eminently practical. It is as iwactkal 



388 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

as justice^ as practical as humanity, as practical as 
duty, which cannot he postponed.^ ^ 

The Union cause had now assumed a brighter 
aspect. The year 1863 had been one of great 
prosperity. The year 1864 opened hopefully, 
and the prospect of subduing the rebellion grew 
more cheering every day. General Grant, with 
the title of Lieutenant- General, was assigned to 
the command of all the Federal forces. 

The rebel forces were mainly concentrated in 
two great, armies, in Virginia and in Georgia. 
Against these it was the plan of the commanding 
general to direct the whole military power. 

In consequence of our successes and the in- 
creasing prospect of crushing the rebellion, 
there arose a new and most important question. 
What shall be done with the Freedmen ? It was 
not enough that slavery had disappeared or was 
departing. There must be constructed a " bridge 
from slavery to freedom," over which the millions 
who had been enfeebled and degraded by slavery 
might safely pass into a condition of useful citi- 
zenship. They needed guidance and protection. 

Many plans were proposed by persons in and 
out of Congress. The one finally adopted, March 



LIFE OF CHARLES SU^'NER. 389 

3, 1865, creating a Bureau of Freedmen under 
the War Department, differed in some particulars 
from that proposed by Mr. Sumner, May 25, 18G4, 
but it embraced its essential features. His pref- 
erence, however, was, that the bureau should bo 
connected with the Treasury Department. 

It has been supposed by some that Mr. Sum- 
ner had " a great scheme for creating a new de- 
partment of the government, with a cabinet officer 
at its head, for the peiyetual care of the freed- 
men," and tending '' to perpetuate caste." Noth- 
ing could be farther from the truth. He ex- 
pressly calls his plan a " bridge from slavery to 
freedom.''^ He sought for the freedmen " imme- 
diate protection and welfare during the present 
transition period." " Our present necessity," he 
said, " is to help those made free by th^ present 
war ; " "to help the freedmen in their rough 
passage from slavery to freedom; ^^ "to secure 
employment for them during the transition from 
one condition to another." " The temporary care 
of the freedmen is the complement of emanci- 
pation." 

The sphere of the bureau was afterwards made 
to embrace provision for the education, as well 



390 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

as for the employment and protection, of the 
freedmen. 

The bureau accomplished a most beneficent 
work, notwithstanding many serious mistakes in • 
its operation, and cases of perversion of funds 
from their legitimate purposes. 

Without it, the newly-freed would have found 
their transition much harder from slavery to 
freedom. It stood between them and their late 
masters, and offered help and encouragement. 

The statutes for the rendition of fugitive slaves 
had been repealed. Another and a last support' 
of slavery still remained — that which sanctioned 
" the coastwise traffic in slaves under the flag of 
the United States." The foreign slave-trade 
had been declared piracy. Why should the 
domestic, inter-state commerce in slavery be 
allowed to continue? 

March 22, 1864, Mr. Sumner reported a bill 
for removing the " disgraceful statute." It came 
up again June 24 and 25, in the form of an 
amendment to a civil appropriation bill. It 
passed the Senate June 25, and on July 2, by 
the President's signature, the national statute- 
book was thoroughly purged from the stain of 
slavery. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 391 

Attached to the same appropriation bill was 
another amendment, also introduced by the in- 
domitable 'intruder" from Massachusetts, for 
"opening the United States courts to colored 
witnesses." This also was carried. 

While other senators interposed objections, or 
were favorable to delay in these efforts for free- 
ing the general government from all complicity 
with slavery, and from discriminations against 
the colored people, Mr. Sumner was ever on the 
alert with his " besom of destruction," desiring 
to make a " clean sweep " of all odious and op- 
pressive distinctions. Some objected to his 
making use of appropriation bills for carrying 
through his projects ; but he fold them that there 
was " hardly ever an appropriation bill that was 
not compelled to take passengers in this way," 
and that when the " passengers " were the har- 
bingers of justice and humanity, he had no scru- 
ples about putting them on board — if the Senate 
would compel him to seek for them that method 
of transportation. 



392 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Nomination of Abraham Lincoln. — Reverses. — 
Peace Overtures. — Jefferson Davis. — Nomi- 
nation of General 3IcCleUan. — Federal Suc- 
cesses. — Speech of Mr. Sumner at New York. 
— " Issues of the Presidential Election.'' — 
Chicago and Baltimore. — Election of Mr. Lin- 
coln. — 31r. Sumner's Speech at Faneuil Hall. 

— Great Exultation. — Political Bai-hers. — 
3Ir. Lincoln's Liaugural. — Reconstruction of 
Louisiana. — The Plan opposed by 3L\ Sum- 
ner. — His Reception in Massachusetts. — Change 
of Tone. — Praise follows Blame. — Rebel Legis- 
lature of Virginia. — Mr. Lincoln's Plan. — 
Opposed by Mr. Sumner. — Telegram to Rich- 
mond. — il/r. Sumner's Views of Reconstruction. 

— Relations betiveen Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Sum- 
ner. — Henry Clay and Dr. Channing. — Pic- 
ture for the Capitol. — Tax on Knowledge. 

The war had now been prosecuted more than 
three years. With high hopes of its speedy 
termination, the Union National Convention met 



LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 393 

at Baltimore, and imanimously re-nominated 
Abraham Lincoln for President. 

But soon reverses came, financiail embarrass- 
ments increased, and a general gloom overspread 
the country. 

Under these circumstances peace overtures 
were attempted. Jefferson Davis was interro- 
gated as to his views of a peaceful settlement 
of the difficulties between the North and South. 
He would listen to no proposition of peace which 
did not recognize Southern independence. 

The Democratic party now sounded the cry, 
" A four years' failure ! " There were some re- 
spectable but misguided men who joined in the 
dirge, but with them was a large following of 
traitors, who now, at the first sign of ill success, 
crept forth from their hiding-places for a last des- 
perate effort to save slavery from impending 
doom. 

They came together, these enemies within the 
camp, of high and of low degree, in a so-called 
National Convention, at Chicago, August 29. 
There, bitter and even treasonable words were 
spoken against the administration, and especially 
its interference with slavery. General McClellan 
wu=! nominated for President. 



394 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

The convention had scarcely broken up when 
splendid successes came, under Sherman and 
Farragut. The public confidence and hope were 
strong that at last the rebellion was nigh to 
death. 

The presidential canvass was full of impor- 
tance, and awakened a profound interest. Mr. 
Seward stated the issues thus : '' McClellan and 
Disunion — Lincoln and Union." 

Just before the election, Mr. Sumner delivered 
a speech at New York (November 5, 1864) on 
The Issues of the Presidential Election. In it he 
said, " There is a wide-spread political party, 
which, true to its history, now comes forward to 
save belligerent slavery, — even at this last mo- 
ment, when it is about to be trampled out for- 
ever. Not to save the country, but to save 
belligerent slavery, is. the object of the misnamed 
Democracy. Asserting the war, in which so 
much has been done, to be a failure . . . this 
party openly offers surrender to the rebellion. 
I do not use too strong language. It is actual 
surrender and capitulation ... in one of two 
forms: (1) by acknowledging the rebel States, 
so that they shall be treated as independent; or 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 395 

(2) by acknowledging slavery, so that it shall be 
restored to its old supremacy over the national 
government, with additional guarantees. . . . 
Both pivot on slavery. One acknowledges the 
slave power out of the Union ; the other acknowl- 
edges the slave power in the Union. 

" Look," he said, " at the Chicago platform or 
candidate as you will, and you are constantly 
brought back to slavery as the animating impulse. 

" Look at the Baltimore platform or candidate, 
and you are constantly brought back to liberty as 
the animating impulse. 

" And thus again slavery and liberty stand face 
to face — the slave-ship against the Mayflower. 

'' Never was grander cause or sublimer conflict. 
Who is not saddened at the thought of precious 
lives given to liberty's defence ? The soil of the 
rebellion is soaked with patriot blood, its turf is 
bursting with patriot dead. Surely they have 
not died in vain. The flag they upheld will con- 
tinue to advance. But this depends upon your 
votes. Therefore, for the sake of that flag, and 
for the sake of the brave men who bore it, now 
sleeping where no trumpet of battle can wake 
them, stand by the flag." 



396 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

November 8, Mr. Sumner was at BostoQ, at a 
meeting in Paneuil Hall. As the votes were an- 
nounced giving assurance that Abraham Lincoln 
was elected, he spoke, as the mouthpiece of the 
assembly, of the free North, and of oppressed 
millions at the South, words of enthusiastic grat- 
itude : — 

" The trumpet of victory is now sounding 
through the land, ' Glory, Hallelujah ! ' It is the 
silver trumpet of an archangel, echoing in val- 
leys, traversing mountains, and filling the whole 
country with immortal melodies, destined to 
awaken other echoes in the most distant places, 
as it proclaims ' Liberty throughout all the land, 
unto all the inhabitants thereof.' 

" Such is the victory we celebrate, marking an 
epoch in our history and in the history of the 
world. . . . The voice of the people at the ballot- 
box has echoed back that great letter of the 
President, ' To whom it may concern,' declaring 
the integrity of the Union and the abandonment 
of slavery the two essential conditions of peace. 

" Let the glad tidings go forth, ' to whom it 
may concern,' — to all the people of the United 
States, at length now made wholly free — to for- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 397 

eign countries — to the whole family of man — 
to posterity — to the martyred band who have 
fallen in battle for their country — to the angels 
above — ay, and to the devils below, — that this 
republic shall live, for Slavery is dead. This is 
the great joy we now announce to the world." 

In merrier words, but no less serious strain, 
Mr. Sumner wrote, a day or two later, to the 
Young Men's Republican Union of New York, — 

" Thank God, the pettifoggers of compromise 
are answered by the people, who demand peace 
on the everlasting foundations of Union and Lib- 
erty. 

'' The political barbers, who undertake to pre- 
scribe when they can only shave, are warned that 
their quackery is at an end." 

Surely it was " at an end ; " for at the. next 
session of Congress after Mr. Lincoln's re-elec- 
tion, the Constitutional Amendment abolishing 
and forever prohibiting slavery in the United 
States, was passed. 

Mr. Lincoln followed with his Inaugural, in 
which, with a solemnity and pathos, and a deeply 
religious strain, that seemed to betoken a con- 
sciousness that his work was almost done, and in 



398 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNEE. 

language rather like a prophet's than like a 
statesman's, he spoke of the sin and woe of 
slavery. 

" The Almighty," he said, " has his own pur- 
poses. ' Woe unto the world because of offences ; 
for it must needs be that offences come, but woe • 
to that man by whom the offence cometh.' 

" If we shall suppose that American Slavery 
is one of these offences, which, in the providence 
of God, must needs come, but which, having 
continued through His appointed time, He now 
wills to remove, and that He gives to both North 
and South this terrible war, as the woe due to 
those by whom the offence came, shall we dis- 
cern therein any departure from those divine 
attributes which the believers in a loving God 
always ascribe to Him?" 

About a fortnight previous to the inauguration 
of the President, a resolution was introduced 
into the Senate, by Mr. Trumbull, recognizing 
the new State government of Louisiana, to be 
inaugurated under General Banks. 

This was a favorite measure with Mr. Lincoln. 
" With malice toAvards none, and charity for all," 
he was anxious to have the work of reconstruc- 
tion and good-will go forward. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 399 

Mr. Sumner was as earnest for this as was the 
President, but in this particular case, as often at 
other times, they differed as to means. 

Mr. Sumner frankly stated his objections, in 
private, to the President, and also in the Senate. 
The new government recognized " an oligarchy 
of the skin ; " there ought to be " no reconstruc- 
tion without the votes of the blacks." He took 
his position against the bill. If in no other way, 
he would talk it down. 

It was near the close of the session ; most 
'important business was pressing for action; but 
Mr. Sumner was resolved not to be driven from 
his purpose. " Such a revolutionar}^ measure " 
must be defeated. To put power into the hands 
of men just emerged from rebellion, and full of 
prejudice against the blacks, leaving the latter at 
the mercy of the former, without a voice in the 
new government, was, he thought, most unsafe 
for the country, most unjust to one half the popu- 
lation of Louisiana, and a most dangerous pre- 
cedent in the coming work of reconstruction. It 
was necessary to begin right. To prevent so 
great a wrong and peril was, in his view, far 
more important than to pass appropriation or any 



400 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. - 

other bills. A mistake here might lose whatever 
had been gained. 

And so he piled up documents upon his desk, 
preliminary to a determined battle. He would 
talk against time. He would defeat the bill. 
Senators beheld with dismay these formidable 
preparations. "Do you intend," said one mem- 
ber, an intimate friend, '' by parliamentary tac- 
tics, to stop all the business of the Chamber ? " 
" I do," said he ; ''I shall employ every parlia- 
mentary device which is allowable. I shall pro- 
pose amendments. I shall talk and talk, till joii 
are glad to surrender." 

He did talk ; his documental ammunition ena- 
bled him, from day to day, to keep up a running 
fire, which bore down all opposition, and a sur- 
render came. That commanding presence, that 
resolute look, those eloquent pleas for justice, 
those constant discharges of facts and arguments, 
that determination to conquer, carried the day. 
The bill went by default. The country was saved 
from a great peril. 

It was said that the President took the defeat 
of the bill much to heart, and it was supposed 
that now there was an irreparable breach be- 
tween him and the sturdy senator. 



-te^s 




LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 401 

But they were both magnanimous, and, firmly 
believing each in the other's honesty of purpose, 
could differ without malice. 

" On the night of the Gth of March," says 
Mr. Schurz, " two days after Lincoln's second 
inauguration, the customary inauguration ball 
was to take place. Sumner did not think of 
attending it. But towards evening he received 
a card from the President, which read thus : — 

' Dear Mr. Sumner : Unless you send me word 
to the contrary, I shall this evening call with 
my carriage at your house to take you with me 
to the inauguration ball. 

' Sincerely yours, 

' Abraham Lincoln." 

" Mr. Sumner, deeply touched, at once made up 
his mind to go to an inauguration ball for the first 
time. Soon the carriage arrived, the President 
invited Sumner to take a seat in it with him, and 
Sumner found there Mrs. Lincoln and Mr. Colfax, 
the Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
Arrived at the ball-room, the President asked 
Mr. Sumner to offer his arm to Mrs. Lincoln ; and 
the astonished spectators, who had been made to 
believe that the breach between Lincoln and 
26 



402 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

Sumner was irreparable, beheld the President's 
wife on the arm of the senator, and the senator, 
on that occasion of state, invited to take the seat 
of honor by the President's side. Not a word 
passed between them about their disagreement. 

" The world became convinced that such a 
friendship between such men could not be broken 
by a mere honest diiference of opinion. Abra- 
ham Lincoln, a man of sincere and profound con- 
victions himself, esteemed and honored sincere 
and profound convictions in others. It was thus 
that Abraham Lincoln composed his quarrels with 
his friends ; and at his bedside, when he died, 
there was no mourner more deeply afflicted than 
Charles Sumner." 

When, at the close of the session, Mr. Sumner 
returned to Massachusetts, nearly all the papers 
denounced him. He met with a frown every- 
where. He was obstinate. He was impractica- 
ble. He was dictatorial. He was a theorist. 
He descended to stratagems to carry a point. 
He was standing in the way of reconciliation. 
He was anything but a wise statesman and a good 
son of Massachusetts. But before he resumed 
his seat at Washington, events which had trans- 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 403 

pired in Louisiana convinced everybody that he 
was right. He was no longer an idealist. He was 
no longer self-willed. He was proved to be the 
most practical and sagacious of all the great men 
at Washington. How often did these changes of 
popular opinion attend Mr. Sumner's public life ! 
■" We may here refer to a somewhat similar case 
.of later occurrence. When, after Lee's sur- 
render, Mr. Lincoln went to Richmond, he was 
solicited by persons of the vanquished party to 
allow the rebel legislature to convene, with a 
view to the reconstruction of Virginia as a loyal 
State. The gentlemen were submissive and 
courteous ; they made fair promises ; they moved 
the heart of the noble but too credulous Presi- 
dent ; and he told them to go forward. His fond 
dream of a restored Union seemed on the dawn 
of fulfilment.* 

* The following is Mr. Lincoln's letter of permission : — 

" City Point, August 6, 1865. 
" Major General Weitzel, Richmond, Virginia : It has been 
intimated to me that the gentlemen who have acted as the legisla- 
ture of Virginia in support of the rebellion, may now desire to as- 
semble at Richmond and take measures to withdraw the Virginia 
troops and other support from resistance to the general gov- 
ernment. If they attempt it, give them permission and protec- 
tion, until, if at all, they attempt some action hostile to the United 



404 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

He went back. The happy news from Virgin- 
ia was received with joy in Washington. There 
was a general approval of Mr. Lincoln's plan. But 
there was one most decided exception. Mr. Sum- 
ner hurried to the President. He had a hearing. 
'^ What have you done ? " he asked. " A govern- 
ment under rebel control will undo what has 
been done. Slavery, in some form, will creep 
back into Virginia. The blood of the army will 
have been shed in vain. Such a legislature as 
you have encouraged must not be allowed to 
assemble." 

At the door were waiting Mr. Seward and oth- 
er wise Republicans. When Mr. Sumner passed 
out, they went in. '• You have done right," said 
they to the President. " You have shown a noble 
spirit of conciliation. Your course will win back 
the South. You must not listen to Mr. Sumner. 
He is an impracticable man. His policy will irri- 

States ; in which case you will notify them, giving them reasonable 
time to leave, and at the end of which time arrest any who remain. 
Allow Judge Campbell to see this, but do not make it public. 

" Yours, &c., 

" A. Lincoln." 

The President returned to Washington April 9. Three days after 
he sent to Richmond a recall of the above permission. In two 
days more he was assassinated. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 405 

tate the South, and endanger or delay reconstruc- 
tion." 

Mr. Lincoln heard them through ; the telegram 
that was sent to Richmond the next day, order- 
ing delay, told what Mr. Lincoln thought of Mr. 
Sumner and his opinions. Aild again the country 
was saved through a man who dared to stand 
alone. 

The time is coming when the true history of 
events will show that, in several important crises, 
Mr. Sumner stood alone in the breach, and saved 
the nation. He had rare sagacity and courage. 
The country owes him a debt of gratitude whicli 
even now she cannot duly estimate. 

And the South have begun to learn that even 
when he opposed reconstruction on their grounds, 
he was seeking their best interests, because seek- 
ing it on a permanent basis of justice to all. He 
thought it no unreasonable hardship that those 
who had sought to overthrow the national gov- 
ernment should stand modestly aside until their 
passions had subsided, and until sure guarantees 
could be effected for the rights of the colored 
people. Peace was in his heart. But it was no 
deceptive peace. It was peace springing from 



406 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

impartial justice, involving the righteous adjust- 
ment of the relations between whites and blacks. 

In this connection we may add what Mr. 
Schurz . further remarks about the relations of 
these great men to each other. Speaking of Mr. 
Lincoln, he says, — " 

" Mr. Sumner he treated as a favorite coun- 
sellor, almost like a Minister of State, outside of 
the cabinet. There were statesmen around the 
President who were also politicians, understand- 
ing the art of management. Mr. Lincoln appre- 
ciated the value of their advice as to what was 
prudent and practicable. But he knew also how 
to discriminate. In Mr. Sumner he saw a coun- 
sellor who was no politician, but who stood before 
him as the true representative of the moral ear- 
nestness and the great inspirations of their com- 
mon cause. From him he heard what was right, 
and necessary, and inevitable. By the former he 
was told what, in their opinion, could prudently 
and safely be done. Having heard them both, 
Abraham Lincoln counselled with himself, and 
formed his resolution. 

" Thus Mr. Lincoln, while scarcely ever fully 
and speedily following Sumner's advice, never 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 407 

ceased to ask for it, for he knew its significance. 
And Sumner, while almost always dissatisfied 
with Lincoln's cautious hesitation, never grew 
weary in giving his advice, for he never dis- 
trusted Lincoln's fidelity. Always agreed as to 
the ultimate end, they almost always differed as 
to times and means ; but while differing, they 
firmly trusted, for they understood one another." 

Among the causes which led to the differing 
views of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Sumner, and to 
their peculiar relations to each other, we may 
mention the influence, intellectual and political, 
upon the former, of Henry Clay, and upon the 
latter, of Dr. Channing. Henry Clay was the 
great leader of the Whig party, and his Life was 
read with avidity by Lincoln in his boyhood, 
and his example and teachings, in after years, 
had a powerful influence upon the formation of 
Mr, Lincoln's opinions on public questions. Dr. 
Channing was, to an important extent, the teach- 
er and model of Sumner in his younger days, as 
a great foe to war and slavery. 

Clay, as well as Channing, was opposed to 
slavery. Both the statesman and the divine de- 
sired its extermination. But while the former 



408 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

was largely governed 'in his methods by consid- 
erations of expediency, the latter viewed the 
subject in its profounder moral aspects, and was 
more earnest and radical. These differences ap- 
pear in their disciples. 

Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Sumner had the same 
hatred of slavery, and an equal desire for its ex- 
tinction ; but they often, as in the case just con- 
sidered, differed widely as to methods. The 
former, though far in advance of his teacher in 
his attitude towards slavery, yet felt the influence 
of the great compromiser, and was slow and hes- 
itating compared with Mr. Sumner. The lat- 
ter, having the most intense convictions of sla- 
very as an unmitigated wrong, would make no 
terms with it. He could brook no delay in deal- 
ing with it. He demanded immediate and un- 
conditional emancipation. 

They both desired emancipation, and they both 
reached it ; but the one at a bound, the other 
slowly, feeling his way cautiously along ; the one 
certain that it was always safe to do right, the 
other equally sure of that, but not quite sure the 
right time had come. 

As they differed about slavery, so also about 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 409 

the reconstruction of the insurgent States, and 
according to the different kinds of influence they 
had each come under, in Illinois or Massachusetts. 

While the Louisiana bill was under considera- 
tion, Mr. Sumner, following up his purpose of 
securing a guarantee of republican governments 
in the rebel States, by which all, without distinc- 
tion of color, might have equal rights and privi- 
leges, introduced a series of resolutions to that 
effect. 

That, in his radical measures Mr. Sumner was 
governed by the highest considerations of jus 
tice, and a delicate regard to the interests and 
honor of the whole country, is evident from his 
treatment of a proposition in the Senate, Pebru- 
ar}^ 27, '^ to purchase a picture for the Capitol." 
He offered an amendment : — 

" Provided, That in the National Capitol, de- 
voted to the National Union, there shall be no 
picture of a victory in battle with our fellow- 
citizens." 

Here, too, Mr. Sumner stood alone. Mr. Wil-' 
son and Mr. Howe dissented from him entirely, 
and the amendment was rejected without a divis- 
ion. But here, as often, Mr. Sumner was far 
in advance of his countrvmen. 



410 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

The same day, and in the same large and lib- 
eral spirit, he opposed a proposition to lay a tax 
on books. The country, in its struggle with the 
rebellion, needed all the money she could get, 
but he thought it poor economy to impose a. tax 
on knowledge. 

But here also Mr. Sumner was in a small mi- 
nority, and his amendment was lost. 



LIFE OP OHAELES SUMNER. 411 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

President Lincoln and Mr. Sumner at Richmond. 

— Passage from " Macbethy — 3Ir. Lincoln's 
Assassination. — 3Ir. Seiuard's Life attempted. 

— Mr. Sumner at the Dickens Dinner. — His 
Account of the Night of the Assassination. — 
Mr. Sumner^s Eulogy on President Lincoln. — 
Divine Providence. — 3Ir. Lincoln's early 3Ian- 
hood. — His Departure for Washington. — His 
Speech at Gettysburg. — His Second Inaugu- 
ral. — His Intellectual Character. 

And now we have reached a sad period of the 
national history. 

Sherman has triumphed over the lower army 
of the South, Richmond has fallen, Lee surren- 
dered, and the rebellion come to an end. It is 
a time of universal joy. But sorrow is at the 
door. 

On the 6th of April, 1865, the President, 
attended by Mrs. Lincoln, the Vice-President, 



412 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

and several Senators, among them Mr. Sumner, 
made a visit to evacuated Richmond. It was 
then that the President, sitting by Mr. Sumner 
on the deck of the steamboat, read aloud, " from 
a beautiful quarto Shakspeare in his hand," those 
sad, prophetic words in Macbeth, — 

" Duncan is in his grave : 
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well. 
Treason has done her worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing 
Can touch him farther ! " 

Mr. Sumner, in his eulogy upon Mr. Lincoln, 
in September following, says that, '^ impressed 
by their beauty, or by some presentiment un- 
uttered, he read them aloud a second time." 

A week more, and the prophecy is fulfilled ! 
Treason did its worst. Our noble President 
fell by a shot from an assassin shouting, " Sio 
semper tyraniiis ! " "^ And to think that he, so 
simple-hearted, so magnanimous, so true a friend 
to the humblest and weakest, should have been 
reckoned among tyrants ! But this was the last 
frenzied shriek of the rebellion. The evil spirit 
went out of it, foaming and rending. 

But the President was not the only object 

* May such always be the fate of tyrants. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 413 

of vengeance. Secretary Seward and two of 
his sons, came near suffering the same fate. 
Others, doubtless, had been marked for attack, 
but escaped, perhaps because of the general 
alarm which was immediately awakened. 

Mr. Sumner was for some time thought by 
his friends to be in peril of his life, and he 
was urged to arm himself, and use other pre- 
cautions against threatened danger. But he 
refused to do so. 

The colored people of Washington were par- 
ticularly concerned for his safety, and sent a 
committee, among whom was Rev. Mr. Grimes, 
of Boston, then in Washington, to -urge him 
to accept a guard whom they would feel proud 
to provide, and who might, unknown to the 
public, watch over his person and house. He 
thanked them most heartily for their kindness, 
but firmly declined their proffer, saying that 
he had only done his duty in contending for 
their rights, and that if it was God's will that 
he should now go, he was ready for the event. 
He would leave himself in God's hands. 

A friend has furnished us with some remarks 
of Mr. Sumner, at a little dinner-party given by 



414 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

him, in Washington, February, 2, 1868, in honor 
of Mr. Dickens, in which he gave an account 
of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. 

Between nine and ten of that Friday evening 
he was in pleasant conversation with Mr. Con- 
nors, when the door was thrown open, and a 
young man rushed in with his hair almost on 
end, and said, " Mr. Lincoln is assassinated in 
the theatre. Mr. Seward is murdered in his 
bed. There's murder in the streets ! " 

Mr. Sumner said he could not credit it, and 
replied, " Young man, be moderate in your state- 
ments — what has hajypeoied ? Tell us ! " He 
replied, indignantly, '' I have told you what has 
happened," and repeated his statements. 

Mr. Sumner said that he then left and went to 
the White House, where he found the sentinel 
quietly pacing before the mansion. He asked 
him whether Mr. Lincoln had returned. '' No," 
was his reply, " and we have heard nothing from 
him." 

Mr. Sumner then went to the door, and put 
the same question to the porter, from whom 
he received a similar reply. 

He then said, " They say that the President 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 415 

has been assassinated." "Whereupon the porter 
rushed up stairs and told Robert Lincoln, who 
at once came down. As Mr. Sumner turned 
to go, Robert joined him. They found a hack 
at the door, but who sent it no one ever knew. 
They jumped in, and drove with great rapidity 
till they reached the theatre, where they found 
a startled crowd. 

Mr. Sumner passed by the sentinels, and, as he 
entered the building, found where Mr. Lincoln 
had been carried. Mrs. Lincoln and Miss Harris 
were standing in the entry. Mrs. Lincoln rushed 
up to him with many exclamations, and asked 
him whether her husband was dead. He in- 
formed her that he had just come, and knew noth- 
ing of what had happened, but had brought 
her son. He then passed into the room where 
Mr. Lincoln was. He was lying on the bed, 
stretched diagonally across it, — for he was very 
tall, — his head hanging over a little to accomo- 
date the blood, which was flowing freely from the 
wound. He was breathing heavily, his eyes 
were half open, and his face looked perfectly 
fresh and natural. 

Mr. Sumner sat down at the head of the bed, 



416 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

took the President's right hand in his, and spoke 
to him. One of the surgeons said, " It is of no 
use, Mr. Sumner — he can't hear you — he is 
dead." 

Mr. Sumner resented the idea, and said, " No, 
he isn't dead — look at his face — he is breath- 
ing." 

" It will never be anything more than this," 
was the answer. 

There Mr. Sumner sat during the whole night, 
listening to his breathing, which sounded almost 
like melody, till, at twenty minutes past seven, it 
stopped. 

He then said, " Now for Mr. Seward ; " for he 
had heard nothing from him, and turned to go 
out. He found General Halleck a few feet in 
front of him, and as he had a carriage, Mr. Sumner 
asked him to take him as far as Mr. Seward's. 
The general said he was going to see Vice- 
President Johnson, and tell him not to stir out 
that day without a guard. After he had seen Mr. 
Johnson, he would carry him where he liked. 

They got into the carriage, and as they passed 
through the crowd, people asked, " How is Mr. 
Lincoln? Is he alive?" He shook his head, 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 417 

and they drove on to the Kirkwood House, where 
General Halleck did an errand, and then to Mr. 
Seward's. 

Mr. Sumner sent up his card to Mrs. Seward, 
and said that she might like to see him. She 
sent for him. As he started to go up to the 
third story, he found her half way down the 
stairs, seated, and dressed in white. She seized 
him by both his hands, and said, " Charles Sum- 
ner, they have murdered my husband, they have 
murdered my boy. Fred is dying. He will 
never speak to me again." 

Mr. Sumner tried to say that he hoped it was 
not so bad, and asked how her husband was. 

"Henry is doing better than I expected," she 
replied, " but Fred will never speak to me 
again." Then suddenly rising, she threw off his 
hands, and said, " I must fly," and disappeared. 

Mr. Sumner said he never saw her again. 

The city of Boston wished to do honor to the 
memory of the martyred President, and invited 
the elder of the senators of the Commonwealth to 
deliver a eulogy on the first day of June. 

Mr. Sumner began his eulogy with these im- 
pressive words : — 
27 



418 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

"In the universe of God there are no acci- 
dents. From the fall of a sparrow to the fall 
of an empire or the sweep of a planet, all is ac- 
cording to divine Providence, whos.e laws are 
everlasting. No accident gave to his country 
the patriot we now honor. No accident snatched 
this patriot, so suddenly and so cruelly, from his 
sublime duties. Death is as little an accident as 
life. Never, perhaps, in history has this Provi- 
dence been more conspicuous than in that recent 
procession of events where the final triumph is 
wrapped in the gloom of tragedy. It is our 
present duty to find the moral of this stupendous 
drama." 

Speaking of Mr. Lincoln's early manhood, Mr. 
Sumner said, with great truth and beauty, — 

" His youth was now spent, and at the age of 
twenty-one he left his father's house to begin 
the world. A small bundle, a laughing face, and 
an honest heart, — these were his simple posses- 
sions, together with that unconscious character 
and intelligence which his country learned to 
prize. 

" In the long history of worth depressed, there 
is no instance of such contrast between the de- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 419 

pression and the triumph. No academy, no uni- 
versity, no Alma Mater of science or learning, 
nourished him. No government took him by the 
hand and gave him the gift of opportunity. No 
inheritance of land or money fell to him. No 
friend stood by his side. He was alone in pov- 
erty; and yet not all alone. There was God 
above, who watches all, and does not desert the 
lowly. Plain in person, life, and manners, and 
knowing absolutely nothing of form or ceremony, 
for six months with a village schoolmaster as his 
only teacher, he grew up in companionship with 
the people, with nature, with trees, with the 
fruitful corn, and with the stars. 

" While yet a child his father had borne him 
away from a soil wasted by slavery, and he was 
now a citizen of a Free State, where free labor 
had been placed under safeguard of irreversible 
compact and fundamental law. And thus he 
took leave of youth, happy at least that he could 
go forth under the day-star of Liberty." 

Mr. Lincoln's departure for Washington is thus 
described : — 

''You cannot forget how he left his village 
home, never to return, except under the escort 



420 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

of death. In words of farewell to neighbors 
thronging about him, he dedicated himself to his 
country, and solemnly invoked the aid of divine 
Providence. 

" ' I know not,' he said, ' how soon I shall see 
you again,' and then, with prophetic voice, an- 
nounced that a duty devolved upon him greater 
than that which has devolved upon any other 
man since the days of Washington, and asked 
his friends to pray that he might receive that 
divine assistance without which he could not 
succeed, but with which success was certain. 

" To power and fame others have gone forth 
with gladness and with song; he went forth 
prayerfully as to sacrifice." 

Of that exquisite speech of Mr. Lincoln's, at 
Gettysburg, at the dedication of the National 
Cemetery, Mr. Sumner says, "The President 
spoke very briefly ; but his few words will live 
as long as time. Since Simonides wrote the 
• epitaph for those who died at Thermopylae, noth- 
ing equal has ever been breathed over the fallen 
dead. 

" That speech, uttered on the field of Gettys- 
burg, and now sanctified by the martyrdom of 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 421 

its author, is a monumental act. In the modesty 
of his nature, he said, ' The world will little note, 
nor long remember, what we say here ; but it 
can never forget what they did here.' 

" He was mistaken. The world noted at once 
what he said, and will never cease to remember 
it. The battle itself was less important than the 
speech. Ideas are more than battles. 

" Among events assuring to him the general 
confidence against all party clamor and prejudice, 
this speech cannot be placed too high. To some 
who doubted his earnestness, it was touching 
proof of their error. Others who followed with 
indifference were warmed with grateful sympa- 
thy. Many felt its exquisite genius, as well as 
lofty character. There were none to criticise." 

" Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural Address," said Mr. 
Sumner, " which signalized his entry for a second 
time upon his great duties, was briefer than any 
in our history ; but it has already gone farther, 
and it will live longer, than any other. It was a 
continuation of the Gettysburg speech, with the 
same sublimity and gentleness. Its concluding 
words were like an angelic benediction." 

Mr. Lincoln's intellectual character was thus 



422 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

portrayed : " He was original in mind as in char- 
acter. His style was his own, having no model, 
but springing directly from himself. Failing 
often in correctness, it is sometimes unique in 
beauty and sentiment. 

" There are passages that will live always. It 
is no exaggeration to say, that in weight and 
pith, suffused in a certain poetical color, they 
call to mind Bacon's Essays. There also was a 
touching reality and unconscious power, without 
form or apparent effort. Nothing similar can be 
found in State papers. How poor are kings' 
speeches and presidential messages by the side 
of such utterances, fit harbingers of the sublime 
era of humanity ! " 

How entirely in keeping with Mr. Sumner's 
character was his preference as to who should 
serve as chaplain on the occasion, as appears 
from the following reply to Mr. Gaffield, of the 
municipal government : — 

"Washington, 6th May, 1865. 

" My dear Sir : Do as you please. The names 
you mention are excellent. 

" If I could choose one, it would be Eev. Mr. 
Grimes, the colored preacher. It was for his 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 423 

race that President Lincoln died. If Boston 
adopted him as chaplain on the day when we 
mourn, it would be a truer homage to our de- 
parted President than music or speech. I can 
say nothing that could promise to be so effective 
on earth or welcome in heaven. Think of this, 
and believe me, my dear sir, 

"Very faitlifully yours, 

"Charles Sumner." 

Mr. Sumner's request was granted, and the 
late Rev. Mr. Grimes served, with Rev. Dr. Webb 
and Rev. W. H. Cudworth, as chaplain upon the 
memorable occasion. 



424 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNEE. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Annexation of Alaska. — Impeachment of Presi- 
dent Johnson. — The Alabama Question. — 
Johnson- Clarendon Treaty. — 3Ir. Sumner's 
Views. — Project for Annexing Dominica. — 
3Ir. Sumner's 02)2iOsition. — Unfriendly Rela- 
tions ivith the President. — Joins the Liberal 
Party. — His Beaso7is. — Bis Feelings. — Let- 
ter to a Friend. — Removal from Chairman- 
ship of Committee on Foreign Relations. — His 
Disinterestedness. 

The year 1867 added more than five hundred 
thousand square miles to our national territory, 
by the purchase from Russia, for seven million 
two hundred thousand dollars, of her possessions 
in North America — the region that now bears 
the name Alaska. 

Mr, Sumner took much interest in this pur- 
chase, and made an elaborate speech in the Sen- 
ate in favor of the treaty to that effect. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 425 

In 1868 Mr. Sumner was much engaged in the 
case of the impeachment of President Johnson. 
He firmly believed that the chief magistrate was 
seeking to execute a plan of reconstruction of 
the revolted States which would restore unre- 
pentant rebels to their old power, and revive 
slavery, and that for this purpose he was set- 
ting at defiance the Constitution and laws of the 
land, and usurping power which belonged to 
Congress. 

Let us hope that the President was not so 
great an offender as he was charged with 
being. 

In the year 1869 Mr. Sumner took decided 
ground against the Johnson- Clarendon treaty 
for the settlement of the " Alabama question " 
and other difficulties between the United States 
and Great Britain, growing out of the war of 
the rebellion, especially from rebel cruisers. 

But it does not appear that he intended to 
press to an extremity the full amount of claims. 
He hoped to effect, out of a full and frank exam- 
ination of the whole case, a better understand- 
ing between the two countries, and great reforms 
in the international code. He most of all sought 



426 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

security against future causes of disagreement, 
and firmer guarantees of peace. 

In a speech at Worcester, in September, he 
said, — 

" Who shall fix the measure of this great ac- 
countability ? For the present it is enough to 
expose it. I make no demand — not a dollar of 
money, not a word of apology, I show simply 
what England has done to us. It will be for her, 
on a careful review of the case, to detennine 
what reparation to ofier. It will be for the 
American people, on a careful review of the 
case, to determine what reparation to require. 

" On this head I content myself with the aspi- 
ration that out of this surpassing wrong and the 
controversy it has engendered, may come some 
enduring safeguard for the future, some land- 
mark of humanity. Then will our losses end in 
gain for all, while the law of nations is elevated. 

" But I have little hope of any adequate set- 
tlement until our case, in its full extent, is heard. 
In all controversies, the first stage of justice is 
to understand the case ; and, sooner or later, 
England must understand ours." 

In 1870 and 1871 Mr. Sumner engaged in 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 427 

another contest, which proved to be one of great 
bitterness. It concerned a favorite project of 
President Grant — the annexation of a part of 
St. Domingo to the United States. Mr. Sum- 
ner took decided ground in opposition to the 
measure. 

Baez, the alleged ruler of Dominica, with 
whom negotiations for its purchase had been 
carried on, Mr. Sumner regarded as an unprin- 
cipled usurper, who was attempting to sell his 
country for ■ gold, " in violation of its constitu- 
tion." The relations between the two govern- 
ments of Hayti and Dominica were of so dis- 
turbed a character, that Mr. Sumner deemed it 
especially censurable in our government to pur- 
sue a course of '' menace " for the acquisition of 
a part of the island, to the offence aijd humiliation 
of the Haytien Republic. 

Such was Mr. Sumner's view of the matter, the 
correctness of which recent events have most 
abundantly vindicated. Honestly entertaining 
it, he could do nothing less than vigorously op- 
pose the presidential scheme. He did so with 
his usual thoroughness, and with that force of 
language of which he was master. Of course 



428 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

there was a tempest, and the relations between 
the Senator and the President were far from 
pleasant. 

Every day the clouds gathered blackness, until 
they found vent in a drenching rain of denuncia- 
tion. President Grant being arraigned before the 
bar of the country in the famous speech, " Re- 
publicanism versus Grantism : Reform and Purity 
in Government," delivered in the Senate, May 
31, 1872. In this speech Mr. Sumner renewed 
his attack upon the presidential plan for annexing 
Pominica, and freely commented upon various 
points of the administrative policy. 

In all this he declared that he was not warring 
with the Republican party. He simply wanted 
reform, in the direction of honesty and justice. 
Of the party he said, " I stood by its cradle ; 
let me not follow its hearse." 

The party, however, disregarded Mr. Sumner's 
appeals, and renominated President Grant. 

Mr. Sumner, finding his efforts fruitless within 
the old organization, joijied in a separate move- 
ment, which aimed at the election of Horace 
Greeley, professedly a Reform candidate. 

How far he was mistaken in his allegations 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 429 

against the administration, or how far time has 
proved their correctness, it is not the province 
of this volume to inquire. 

But we cannot believe that the man who had 
heretofore labored with singular disinterested- 
ness for lofty ends, had now, at last, descended to 
the mean gratification of personal spite, willing 
to rend the party which had cherished him, and 
which had given freedom to the whole country. 
Concede that he erred in judgment; still his 
high purpose was to serve his country in what 
seemed to him the only practicable way that was 
left him. 

It was said that in siding with the Liberal 
party, he showed too much sympathy with the 
South. In reply, he appealed to his course from 
the first, through the whole contest against sla- 
very, in proof that his eye had ever been upon 
peace. 

" Such," he said, " is the simple and harmoni- 
ous record, showing how, from the beginning, I 
was devoted to peace ; how constantly I longed 
for reconciliation ; how, with every measure of 
equal rights, this longing found utterance ; how 
it became an essential part of my life : how I 



430 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNEE. 

discarded all idea of vengeance and punishment ; 
how reconstruction was. to my mind, a transition 
period ; and how earnestly I looked forward to 
the day when, after the recognition of equal 
rights, the people should again be one, in reality 
as in name. If there are any who ever main- 
tained a policy of hate, I never was so minded ; 
and now, in protesting against any such policy, 
I act only in obedience to the irresistible prompt- 
ings of my soul." 

In these contests for Truth and Right, as he 
understood them, he suffered the keenest sorrow. 
"Writing to a friend about this time, he unbo- 
somed himself with unaccustomed fullness : — 

" I do not deserve the praise of my friends, 
nor do I deserve the censure so freely lavished 
by others. In what I have done I have acted 
always under irresistible promptings, which I 
could not disobey, being the voice of conscience 
within — thinking little, asking never, how it 
might affect me personally. ... I am no stranger 
to sorrow, But is not this the lot of life ? Some- 
times I feel that I have had more than my share. 
There have been fountains of tears for me that 
few know of and the world cannot divine. Be- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 431 

sides these, I have felt keenly the trials of my 
position, and the perils of the truth which I- love. 
Never have I seen my way more clearly than in 
these late conflicts, which have disturbed some 
of my associates, and never was my course more 
simple or conscientious. To suppose that I am 
under the influence of personal motives, whether 
of ambition or anger, on a great question of na- 
tional and international duty, is an absurdity which 
can come from those only who find my motives 
in their own." 

Mr. Sumner's removal from the chairmanship 
of the Committee on Foreign Relations, which he 
had held and honored since 1861, was to him a 
great source of pain. This displacement was 
occasioned by his altered relations to the Presi- 
dent, which, in the opinion of many, rendered a 
change necessary for the public interest. But 
he felt it keenly, not so much as involving the 
loss of a distinguished place, as indicating, in his 
view, a rude change of feelings towards him on 
the part of friends with whom he had long 
labored on terms of mutual esteem and affection, 
and as taking him from a position where he felt 
entirely at home, and where he had so long 



432 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

been trusted with questions of the highest con- 
cern to the country. 

That Mr. Sumner's views about the St. Do- 
mingo affair were unchanged to the very last, 
is shown by a letter written to a friend, three 
days before his death, and received after that 
event : — 

" Senate Chamber, 9th March, '74. 

" My dear : I am against capital 

punishment, but if ever a man deserved a halter 
it is Baez, who proposes to visit Boston. 

" I know his history intimately, and he is a 
usurper, whose hands have been red with inno- 
cent blood, and who had the terrible audacity to 
conceive the idea of keeping an American citizen 
in prison to prevent his return to New York, 
where it was feared he would write against the 
treaty ; and this crime he actually perpetrated ! 

" If he goes to Boston, he ought to be driven 
out by an indignant public sentiment. 
" Sincerely yours, 

"Charles Sumner." 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 433 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Battle Flags and Army Register. — Proposition to 
erase Names of Battles. — First Resolution. — 
General Scott. — Picture for the Capitol. — 
Second Resolution. — Censured hij the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts. — 3Ir. Sumner's Feel- 
ings. — Letters. — Efforts for rescinding the 
Vote of Censure. — John G. Wliittier. — Tlie 
Resolution rescinded. — Mr. Sumner's Views. 
— Broad Patriotism. — Opinion of Carl 
Schurz. 

Perhaps none of Mr. Sumner's acts has been 
more entirely misunderstood, and at last more 
thoroughly vindicated, than his attempt to erase 
the names of battles won during the war of the 
rebellion, from the regimental colors of the army 
and from the army register. 

This subject was first introduced into Con- 
gress by Mr. Sumner, May 8, 1862, on the occa- 
sion of a despatch from General McClellan, in 
which that ofiicer inquired whether, like other 
28 



434 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

generals, he should direct the names of battles 
to be placed on the colors of regiments. Upon 
this, Mr. Sumner moved the following reso- 
lution : — 

" Resolved, That, in the efforts now making for 
the restoration of the Union, and the establish- 
ment of peace throughout the country, it is inex- 
pedient that the names of victories obtained over 
our fellow- citizens should be placed on the regi- 
mental colors of the United States." 

The resolution was not received with favor, 
and no action was taken upon it. General Scott, 
however, said of the resolution, " This was noble, 
and from the right quarter." 

It may seem strange that a proposition which, 
when renewed ten years later, excited intense 
feeling against its author, should at this time, in 
the very midst of the war, have attracted scarce- 
ly any notice, so that Mr. Sumner was re-elected 
by an almost unanimous vote, nine months after 
he had introduced it. But at the latter period 
there were immediate causes of hostility to Mr. 
Sumner ; and so his action with reference to the 
national flags was seized upon as a means of still 
further prejudicing the public mind against him. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 435 

On February 27, 1865, two years after his re- 
election without any censuVe, there being a reso- 
lution before the Senate authorizing a contract 
with W. H. Powell for a picture at the Capitol, 
Mr. Sumner proposed an amendment : — 

" Provided, That in the National Capitol, dedi- 
cated to the National Union, there shall be no 
picture of a victory in battle Avitli our fellow- 
citizens." 

In connection with this, Mr. Sumner said, — 

" Are you sure that the subject selected at 
the present time would be such as a matu- 
rer and more chastened taste could approve ? 
This is a period of war. We are all under its 
influence. But I doubt if it be desirable to keep 
before us any picture of war, especially of a Avar 
with fellow- citizens. There are moral triumphs 
to which art may better lend its charms. I need 
only refer to the Proclamation of Emancipation, 
which belongs to the great events of history." 

The amendment was opposed, and rejected ; 
but still we hear no note of rebuke from Mas- 
sachusetts. 

Again, December 2, 1872, Mr, Sumner brought 
the subject before the Senate, without a thought, 
probably, of rousing a tempest of denunciation 



436 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

against himself for what he had done twice be- 
fore unrebuked : — 

" Whereas, The national unity and good-will 
among fellow-citizens can be assured only through 
oblivion of past differences, and it is contrary to 
the usage of civilized nations to perpetuate the 
memory of civil war : Therefore, 

'* Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of the United States of America, in 
Congress assembled, That the names of battles 
with fellow-citizens shall not be continued in 
the army register, or placed on the regimental 
colors of the United States." 

At once, as though guilty of some recent 
offence, there arose a cry against the senator, 
which found official expression in the passage of 
a resolution of censure, December 18, by the 
legislature . of Massachusetts, sixteen days after 
the offence had been committed. 

" Resolved by the Senate, &c., That, whereas a 
bill has been introduced into the Senate of the 
United States by a senator from Massachusetts, 
providing ^ that the names of battles with fellow- 
citizens shall not be continued in the army regis- 
ter, or placed on regimental colors of the United 
States ; ' and 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 437 

" WTiereas, The passage of such a bill would 
be an insult to the loyal soldiery of the nation, 
and depreciate their grand achievements in the 
late rebellion ; 

" There/ore, resolved, That such legislation 
meets the unqualified condemnation of the peo- 
ple of this Commonwealth." 

This action was hasty and ill-considered. It 
was done at a special session called to consider 
measures of relief for the city of Boston under 
the losses sustained by the great fire. It did 
not represent Massachusetts. 

The injustice of this act was keenly felt by 
Mr. Sumner, and it threw a gloom over the last 
years of his life. It seemed to him that he 
was cast off by the State which he loved so 
well, whose honor he had ever sought to up- 
hold, and which he had thought held him in 
true esteem. It was not enough that he was 
told that the act was a hasty one — that it 
was not the real act of Massachusetts. There 
stood the censure upon her records ! He was 
deeply touched by assurances given him that 
it would be annulled. He almost died with- 
out the sight. 

To an intimate friend, who had assured him 



438 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

that the censure would soon be removed, ho 
wrote, February 23, 1873,— 

'^ My dear : Your letter surprises 

me. I never doubted that, sooner or later, jus- 
tice would be done me ; but I thought it would 
be later. Your own action is another proof 
of that unbroken friendship which has so long 
subsisted between us. Thanks ! many thanks ! 
I send you my bill introduced by two allegations 
of fact which nobody can dispute. 

" You will iind in vol. vi., p. 499, of what 
booksellers call ' Works of C. S.' the first ap- 
pearance of the official resolution, as long ago 
as May 8, 18|f2. Massachusetts did not con- 
demn me then, but soon thereafter re-elected 
me. General Scott, once commander-in-chief 
of our army, and perhaps as well informed in 
history as any army ofiicer, thanked me (see 
vol. i., pp. 155-190 of his autobiography), as also 
did General Robert Anderson of Fort Sumter. 

" Thanks to Mrs. , also, and believe me, 

dear , 

" Ever sincerely yours, 

" Charles Sumner." 

To the same friend he wrote, March 11, — i't(l 3 

" Thanks again, dear . '' Never was 

I more sure of any proposition than that for 
which I am assailed. When well enough, I will 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 439 

place it beyond all question, — allowing reason, 
history", and every civilized nation for it. The 
Emperor of Germany has just adopted it." 

To another personal friend he wrote, March 

20,- 

" If persons would only consider candidly my 
original convictions on this question, they would 
see how natural and inevitable has been my 
conduct. As if in such a matter I could have 
' hostility ' or ' spite ' to any body ! I am a 
public servant, and never was I moved by a 
purer sense of duty than in this bill, all of 
which will be seen at last. Meanwhile men 
will flounder in misconception and misrepre- 
sentation, to be regretted in the day of light." 

John G. Whittier was foremost among those 
who were deeply grieved by the vote of cen- 
sure. By his pen and in conversation, his noble 
heart appealed to the sense of justice and mag- 
nanimity of the members of the legislature, to 
rectify the grievous wrong done to the high- 
minded and patriotic son of Massachusetts by 
hasty action taken in a moment of excitement. 

Early in 1874, soon after the opening of the ses- 
sion, numerous petitions, from John G. "Whittier, 
Vice-President Wilson, Henry L. Dawes, Ex- 



440 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

Governors Emory Washburn and William Clallin, 
Henry L, Pierce, and very many other citizens of 
the highest standing, representing the inteUigence 
and honorable feelings of the Commonwealth, were 
presented to the Senate. These were at once 
referred to the Committee on Federal Relations, 
who, January 29, reported, that, " finding an un- 
merited censure had been inflicted upon a repre- 
sentative of the State in the Senate of the Union," 
they submitted the following resolution : — 

" Resolved, That the resolution passed on the 
eighteenth day of December, eighteen hundred 
and seventy-two, at the extra session of the legis- 
lature of that year, relating to a bill introduced 
in the Senate of the United States concerning 
the army register and regimental colors of the 
United States, be and hereby is rescinded and 
annulled^ 

This resolution was carried, and being in- 
trusted to a special messenger, Joshua B. Smith, 
of the House, was borne to Mr. Sumner. It 
reached him just before his death. Who is not 
rejoiced to know that it greatly gladdened a 
heart oppressed with heavy sorrow ? After all, 
the " dear old Commonwealth '' had done him 
justice. The heart of Massachusetts and the 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 441 

heart of her great son once again beat in perfect 
unison. 

Whatever opinion may be held as to the ex- 
pediency of Mr. Sumner's proposition, this is 
certain — that it was in perfect consistency with 
principles declared by him as early as 1847, 
twenty years before his first resolution. In an 
oration before the literary societies of Amherst 
College, August 11 of that year, speaking of civil 
wars, he said, — 

" Even if countenanced by justice or dire ne- 
cessity, they were none the less mournful. No 
success over brethren of the same country could he 
the foundation of honor. And so firmly was 
this principle embodied in the very customs 
and institutions of Rome, that no thanksgiving 
or religious ceremony was allowed by the Senate 
in commemoration of such success : nor was the 
triumph permitted to the conquering chief whose 
hands were red with the blood of fellow-citizens. 
Csesar forbore even to send a herald of his un- 
happy victories, and looked upon them with 
shame. . . • [The Christian] would . . . pray 
that the recording angel would blot with tears 
all recollections of the fraternal strife in which 
he was sorrowfully engaged." 

In a learned note appended to the address, Mr. 



442 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

Sumner gave many historical illustrations of his 
position. He quoted from Dion Cassius, that 
Pompey, after his success over Caesar at Dyr- 
rachium, '^ did not speak of it boastfully, nor did 
he wreathe his fasces with laurel, feeling a re- 
pugnance to doing anything of this sort on ac- 
count of a victory over citizens." 

Mr. Sumner knew that it was the uniform prac- 
tice of all civilized. Christian nations to remove 
all national memorials of civil war. To his gen- 
erous and comprehensive mind, informed as to 
universal custom elsewhere, it seemed both just 
and magnanimous to efface from the national, the 
common flag, all traces of our fraternal strife. If 
North and South were ever to be united, it must 
be by meeting on common ground, by oblivion 
of past differences, and by putting away all me- 
morials of former hate. 

Mr. Sumner was said to be wanting in patriot- 
ism ; but his was the highest, broadest patriotism, 
embracing the whole country, and not a moiety. 
It was national, not sectional. It was based on 
the principles of Christianity. Surely it were 
better that the different parts of the country 
should be of one heart, than that sectional pride 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 443 

should be perpetually gratified. Here, in his view, 
was an opportunity for the noblest self-sacrifice, 
to gain a great national advantage. 

" I am for peace," said he, on another occasion, 
" in reality as in name. From the bottom of my 
heart I am for peace, and I welcome all that 
makes for peace. With deep-felt satisfaction I 
remember that no citizen who drew his sword 
has suffered by the hand of the executioner." 

Urging the " enduring fellowship of a common 
citizenship," he said, " To this end there must 
be reconciliation ; nor can I withhold my hand. 
Freely I accept the hand that is offered, and 
reach forth my own in friendly grasp. I am 
against the policy of hate ; I am against fanning 
ancient flames into continued life ; I am against 
raking in the ashes of the past for coals of fire 
yet burning. Pile up the ashes ; extinguish the 
flames ; abolish the hate — such is my desire." 

It was such noble sentiments as these that 
dictated Mr. Sumner's policy. Was he the man 
to be pronounced by a legislative body worthy 
of " unqualified condemnation," as ofiering " an 
insult to the loyal soldiery of the nation? " This 
was a blow aimed at as pure a patriot as Amer 



444 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

ica was ever blessed with. Who is not thankful 
that a stigma which could not attach to him wai3 
removed from Massachusetts ? 

The position of Mr. Sumner was well expressed 
by a fellow- senator, Carl Schurz, in his noble 
eulogy upon Mr. Sumner, in Boston, April 29: — 

" Should the son of South Carolina, when at 
some future day defending the republic against 
some foreign foe, be reminded by an inscription 
on the colors floating over him, that under this 
flag the gun was fired that killed his father at 
Gettysburg ? Should this great and enlightened 
republic, proud of standing in the front of human 
progress, be less wise, less large-hearted, than 
the ancients were two thousand years ago, and 
the kingly governments of Europe are to-day ? 
Let the battle-flags of the brave volunteers, 
which they brought home from the war with the 
glorious record of their victories, be preserved 
intact as a proud ornament of our State Houses 
and armories. But let the colors of the army, 
under which the sons of all the States are to meet 
and mingle in common patriotism, speak of noth- 
ing but union, — not a union of conquerors and 
conquered, but a union which is the mother of 
all, equally tend-er to all, knowing of nothing but 
equality, peace, and love among her children. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 445 

Do you want shining mementos of your vic- 
tories ? They are written upon the dusky brow 
of every freeman who was once a slave ; they 
are written on the gate-posts of a restored 
Union; and the most shining of all will be 
written on the faces of a contented people, re- 
united in common national pride." 

Mr. Sumner's patriotic act is bearing the fruit 
of peace. The South is touched by his gener- 
ous purpose. " Let the grave/' says the New 
Orleans Picayune, '' cover all that was inimical 
to Southern ideas and sentiments in the deceased 
senator, and let us only remember that he would 
have put away from the federal archives all 
show and sign of the triumph of countrymen over 
countrymen.' 

Said Mr. Lamar, of Mississippi, in the House 
of Representatives, " It was certainly a gracious 
act towards the South ... to propose to erase 
from the banners of the national army the 
mementos of the bloody internecine struggle, 
which might be regarded as assailing the pride 
or wounding the sensibilities of the Southern 
people. That proposal will never be forgotten 
by the people so long as the name of Charles 
Sumner lives in the memory of man." 



446 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XXXIT. 

Religious Views of 3Ir. Sumner. — Dr. Qhanning. 

— Mr. Sumner'' s Faith in God. — Seeking Help 
from the Highest Source — Gratitude to God. — 
Divine Providence. — Justice of God. — Regard 
for the Scriptures. — Relief in Christianity. — 
The Christian Standard. — The Christian Hero. 

— Familiarity with the Rible. — Advice to a 
■ Toung Clergyman. — TJie Good Shepherd. — 

Mr. Sumner's Character. — The Chief-Justice- 
ship, — il/r. Sumner^ s Disinterestedness. — His 
Writings. 

In his youth, and for some time after he en- 
tered upon the practice of his profession, Mr. 
Sumner was a regular attendant at King's Chapel. 
During this period. Rev. Dr. F. W. P. Green- 
wood and Rev. Dr. Ephraim Peabody were the 
pastors, the latter beginning his pastorate in 
1846. They were men of fine gifts and eminent 
worth. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER, 4-i7 

Mr. Sumner's character was formed under the 
decided influence of religious principles. All 
his writings, as well as his life, show that ho 
had a reverent faith in God. Indeed, the con- 
stant recognition of a Supreme Being of infinite 
justice, truth, and love, is a conspicuous feature 
of his speeches. 

" True greatness," he says in one place, " con- 
sists in imitating, as nearly as possible, the 
perfections of an Infinite Creator — above all 
in inculcating those highest perfections, Justice 
and Love." 

The references to God. scattered through his 
political speeches, as well as his literary and 
other addresses, carry with them every appear- 
ance of sincerity and profound conviction. 

This is corroborated by some remarks by Rev. 
E. E. Hale, in an address at Faneuil Hall : " Mr. 
Sumner said to a young man, who repeated it to 
me, that, when there was any new subject of de- 
bate ; when there was any new course to be 
adopted; when there was any policy which 
seemed strange or difficult ; when there were any 
of those clouds of which we have been speaking ; 
when that track was to be found and was hard to 



448 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

find ; he never took counsel with men, but sepa- 
rated himself from men, and went alone and con- 
sulted the Highest Authority ; and when he 
was assured by the Highest Authority, then he 
always went forward, and asked no question 
more." 

How reverent his mention of God's care over 
him, in the opening words of his speech on the 
Barbarism of Slavery ! 

How grand and impressive that opening para- 
graph in the eulogy on President Lincoln, in 
which he speaks of divine Providence ! 

He speaks of the injustice of ending the war 
against the rebellion, without also putting an end 
to slavery, as " challenging the judgments of a 
righteous God." " If," said he, ^' the instincts of 
patriotism did not prompt this support (emanci- 
pation), I should find a sufiicient motive in that 
duty which we all owe to the Supreme Ruler, 
God Almighty, whose visitations upon our country 
are now so fearful." 

Mr. Sumner also made frequent references to 
the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testa- 
ment, and always in the spirit of reverence. He 
heard God speaking in them, and summoning us 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 449 

to obedience. " Amidst the tliimders of Sinai 
God declared, * Thou shalt not kill ; ' and the 
voice of these thunders, with this commandment, 
is prolonged in our own day in the echoes of 
Christian churches.'' 

Of the Fugitive Slave Act he says, " With 
modesty, and yet with firmness, let me add, it 
offends against the divine law." 

Mr. Sumner was a believer in Christianity. 
He speaks of it in one place as " our faith." In 
his view, Christianity was the " true " religion, 
in contrast with heathen religions, which he calls 
« false." 

Conversing at one time with Rev. Dr. Neale, 
who often met him in educational meetings, as 
well as elsewhere, Mr. Sumner, in answer to a 
question designed to draw out his religious views, 
declared his full belief in the Christian religion. 
" My way of looking at it," he said, '' may differ 
somewhat from yours, but it is the same religion. 
The sun shines in a different way upon different 
persons, h'is rays striking some vertically, and 
others obliquely, according to their respective 
localities ; but it is the same glorious sun. So 
with Christianity — it comes to me in a way 
29 



450 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

somewhat peculiar, but it is the same glorious 
faith.'- 

Mr. Sumner regarded Christianity as present- 
ing the highest, even a perfect, standard of right. 
He constantly speaks of " Christian duty " as pre- 
senting duty in its purest and most authoritative 
form. When discoursing upon arbitration for the 
settlement of difficulties between nations, after 
other reasons in its favor, he adds, " Above all, it 
is consistent with the teachings of Christianity," 
and implies " a lofty Christian statesmanship." 

He speaks of " that sublime revelation of 
Christianity, the brotherhood of man." " Are 
we not all," he asks, " in a just and Christian 
sense, brethren of one household ? " '' To the 
Christian, every fellow-man, whether remote or 
near, is 'neighbor' and 'brother.'" 

Speaking of slavery as a barbarism, and not 
a civilization, he says, '' In the Christian light of 
the nineteenth century there can be but one 
civilization." Slavery he calls " an infraction of 
God's great laws of right and love, arid of the 
Christian precept, ' Whatever ye would that men 
should do to you, do ye even so to them.' " 

The highest commendation he gives to Wash- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 451 

ington AUston is, to call him " a Christian 
artist." 

-*'■ Thus, every private and public act and institu- 
tion was tested by the Christian standard. 

He speaks of " the irresistible might of Chris- 
tian institutions," and of the encouragement de- 
rived from " the promises of Christianity." 
" With this faith, we place our hands, as those of 
little children, in the great hand of God. He will 
guide and sustain us — through pains and perils 
it may be — in the path of progress." 

" In the clear eye of that Christian judgment 
which must yet prevail, vain are the victories of 
war." " He is the benefactor, and worthy of 
honor, who carries comfort to wretchedness, 
dries the tear of sorrow, relieves the unfortu- 
nate, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, does 
justice, enlightens the ignorant, unfastens the 
fetters of the slave, and finally, by virtuous gen- 
ius in art, literature, science, enlivens and exalts 
the hours of life, or by generous example, in- 
spires a love for God and man. This is the 
Christian hero." " Christianity inculcates pa- 
tience, forbearance, forgiveness of evil, even 
the duty of benefiting a destroyer." 



452 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

In one place be declares his belief in the 
future universal prevalence of Christianity. 
" Nor do we doubt that Christianity will yet pre- 
vail over the whole earth, as the waters cover 
the sea." 

Mr. Sumner was very familiar with the Scrip- 
tures. This is evident, not only in his frequent 
and most apposite quotations, but in those inci- 
dental allusions and in that happy use of Scrip- 
ture phraseology which flavor and dignify his 
writings. 

As an instance of this, take a sentence in his 
address to the governor at the time of his public 
reception in Boston, in 1856, where, speaking of 
his efforts to regain his health, he said, " I listened 
to the admonitions of medical skill, and I courted 
all the bracing' influences of Nature, while time 
passed without the accustomed healing on his 
wings." 

The uniform correctness of his references to 
the Bible forms a noteworthy contrast with the 
sorry work which politicians are apt to make in 
their awkward attempts at Scripture citation. 

The Christian spirit that animated Mr. Sumner 
appears in a little incident. He was once present 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 453 

at the ordination of a young clergyman. At the 
close of the services he went up to him, and said, 
in a pleasant tone, " He prayeth well who loveth 
weU." 

A few weeks before Mr. Sumner's death, a 
party of ladies and gentlemen from Boston visited 
his house at Washington, in company with a com- 
mon friend. Mr. Sumner was even more than 
usually genial and animated, and took great pains 
to point out and explain objects of interest in his 
apartments. Among other things to which he 
called the attention of his guests, was a small and 
rude terra cotta figure of the Good Shepherd, 
in relief, bearing a lamb, the lost one, now recov- 
ered, upon his shoulders. Mr. Sumner said to 
his visitors that this was the way in which the 
shepherd in Eastern countries was accustomed to 
carry home his sheep when infirm or disabled. 
He repeated the passage in the gospel about the 
lost sheep, and the owner leaving the ninety and 
nine to seek that one, giving a touching explana- 
tion of it. He spoke with deep feeling of Jesus 
as the Good Shepherd, and of his great compas- 
sion to mankind. The company were much 
struck with the earnestness and tenderness of 



454 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

his manner, and they remember the scene as one 
of uncommon interest. 

Who that considers the character of his life, 
his ruling purpose to do good, can doubt that a 
spirit was breathed into him from above, from the 
Father of all truth and goodness, to prepare him 
for the great work of mercy which he was a 
chief instrument in accomplishing ? 

He had faults and weaknesses, but they were 
not the faults and weaknesses of an ignoble 
and selfish character. He sometimes showed 
hauteur in his manner, — though this was not the 
habit of his nature, — but it was always in a good 
cause. It largely grew out of his profound con- 
victions, his intense hatred of all wrong, indirect- 
ness, sham, and double-dealing. These things 
aroused his ire, and sometimes made him pass 
over the bounds of a proper moderation. But 
he was not a man to harbor petty grudges ; he 
was not a self-seeker ; he was not jealous or en- 
vious ; he never sought to supplant others to make 
a place for himself Above any casual infelicities 
of temper or manner, arising in part, no doubt, 
from nervous infirmity brought on by his brave 
exposure of wrong, shone forth his genuine lovo 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 455 

of truth and justice, his indomitable patriotism, 
his sincere purpose to benefit his race. George 
y Wilham Curtis calls him " conscience incarnate 
in politics." 

Mr. Caleb Lyon, in some personal reminiscences 
of Mr. Sumner's life in Washington, gives one 
instance of his remarkable disinterestedness. 
'^ Soon after Chief Justice Taney's death," says 
the account, " he showed me a card from the 
President, upon which was written, '■ Hon. 
Charles Sumner : The vacant chief justiceship is 
placed at your disposal. A. Lincoln.' He then 
said, ' There was a time when this office would 
have been the realized dream of my youth ; but 
now it must not, cannot be. The breach between 
Mr. Chase and the President is growing wider 
and wider, and this will close it. No personal 
sacrifice is too great, nor can anything tempt mo 
to desert my post. The Republican party must 
remain intact until its mission is fulfilled.' 

" It is well known that only the great senator's 
persistency accomplished the appointment of Mr. 
Chase, after a tedious delay from October to De- 
cember. Mr. Chase through life remained un- 



456 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

conscious of Mr. Lincoln's offer to Mr. Sumner, 
and his refusal." 

Persons who knew Mr. Sumner intimately in 
Washington for years together, bear uniform 
testimony to his great kindliness of spirit in 
private life, and to his thoughtful regard for 
the comfort of those who were in any way 
dependent on him. They relate how patiently 
he would often listen to a long story of trouble 
from some humble unfortunate, while he also 
well knew how to shake off mere intruders upon 
his time. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 457 



CHAPTER XXXIII, 

Mr. Sumiier^s Purity of Life. — Political Integrity. 
— Conversatiojitd Peculiarities. — A French 
Dinner. 

Mr. Sumner we have seen to be a man of 
the purest principles. He was, also, a man 
of unblemished life. Political venom never 
assailed his character. 

Profanity — that vice too common among pub- 
lic men — was always repulsive to him, as also 
was the slightest approach to vulgarity or coarse- 
ness in conversation. A gentleman, who was 
one of his warm supporters and personal friends, 
and who often entertained him as his guest, says 
that he has met him in all places where gentle- 
men meet without restraint, and heard him con- 
verse on all topics with men of various classes ; 
but has never heard him tell a story or make 



458 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

an allusion, that would have offended the ear of 
the most dainty lady. 

He once said to a clergyman of this city, 
speaking of his somewhat limited means, " I 
have never had the art to get my hand into 
the treasury." 

The boldest schemer of evil never dared 
to approach him with plans for robbing the 
people ; and his hand remained to the last un- 
sullied by the touch of unholy gain. So great 
was the gulf between him and the men who 
play traitor to their trusting constituents, that 
he could say with truth, " People talk about 
the corruption at Washington. I have been 
here all these years, and have seen nothing of 
it." He had not .seen it, because he never 
looked in that direction. 

He never pledged an offering to Freedom 
which he did not lay, freely and without re- 
serve, on her altar. He never held out an 
unmanly allurement for votes ; never spent a 
dollar in the effort to gain an election ; never 
used any of the low trickery which degrades 
alike the elections of England and America. 
He could not stoop either to buy from, or to 



LIFE OF CHABLES SUMNER. 459 

cajole a vote out of, any man. He was the 
same dignified gentleman during a political 
campaign, that he was in the Senate Chamber 
and the drawing-room. 

Mr. Sumner talked, rather than conversed, 
when in company. One who knew him well, 
and was frequently in his society, expresses it 
thus : '' He either led the conversation or re- 
mained silent." 

Mr. Sumner was an inimitable story-teller. 
That minuteness of detail which in another 
would have amounted to tediousness, only kept 
up the interest of the listener, as every word 
gave a new charm. It would be impossible 
to give any adequate illustration of this, but 
to convey some idea of the way in which he re- 
lated scenes and events, we will give, as nearly 
as it can be done from memory, his account of 
a dinner to which he was invited at the mansion 
of one of the most noted among European rulers, 
the last time he was abroad. 

It required a real diplomatist to make him- 
self agreeable to foreigners at that time. They 
were hungry to hear all about republics ; but 
being, as he felt himself, under a ban which 



460 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

the world knew, he realized the great impor- 
tance of steering clear of American politics ; as, 
should "the battle flag matter" come up, he 
could not defend himself without censuring 
" dear old Massachusetts " — and that he would 
not do. 

He had a habit of constantly throwing the 
words " you will observe " into his conversa- 
tion, particularly when describing persons he had 
met, or scenes through which he had passed. 

He had been courteously received by the 
gentleman in question, and was now invited 
to a dinner at his elegant mansion. Having 
arrayed himself with that care which all who 
knew him will remember, he ordered a cab 
to convey him thither ; and he tells the story of 
the dinner thus : — 

"When I left my hotel, I told the cabman 
I wished him to drive me to the residence 
of . 

" ' Yes, sir,' he replied, ' I will gladly do so ; 
we all love him.' 

" After a short drive, we turned into the ele- 
gant grounds, and drove up the avenue which 
leads to the mansion, at the door of which a 
servant received me. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 461 

" I saw no one in the halls as I was conducted 
np stairs to my room by the man who carried my 
bag for me. Entering the apartment assigned 
me, — a most luxurious one, — I found an open 
fire glowing in the grate, a table fully furnished 
with writing materials, and an easy-chair beside 
it — a very beautiful welcome for a stranger. 
The servant then asked for my key, opened my 
bag, and laid out, over a chair, the articles I had 
brought to complete my toilet, and then retired, 
saying, ' I will wait at your door until you are 
ready, sir ; when you call me I will conduct you 
to the drawing-room.' 

" This, you will observe, is the custom in such 
circles. 

" When I was ready, I went to my door, where 
I found the man awaiting me. I descended the 
stairway, and was ushered into the saloon, where 
I found Madame and her guests, — the cus- 
tom of my host being, you will observe, not to ap- 
pear until just before dinner is announced. 

" The house was gorgeous and elegant, and the 
company very distinguished-looking, and of course 

most richly dressed. Madame , who was a 

large and rather coarse-looking person, received 
me with courtesy, and introduced me to the com- 
pany. 

" We conversed for some time before our host 
joined us ; and very soon after he did so, a man- 



462 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

servant threw open the doors which led to the 
dining-room, and gravely announced, ' Dinner is 
served.' The gentleman of the mansion then 
offered his arm to the most distinguished lady of 
the party, and led the way to the dining-room. 
But the custom, you will observe, is, not for the 
lady of the house to give her arm to the gentle- 
man she wishes to honor, and follow her husband, 
but to remain with him behind, till she sees that 
all the ladies are provided with escorts, and have 
left the saloon, when she and her escort follow 
them, and take their places at table. I had given 
my arm to my hostess, taking care, you will ob- 
serve, that it should not be in a way which 
would oblige her to place me at her right hand 
at table unless she desired to do so. This, how- 
ever, she did. 

" The table and its appointments were elegant 
and costly beyond description, all the service, 
even to the plates, being either of solid gold or 
of solid silver. The style of serving was in ac- 
cordance with the elegance and costliness of the 
arrangements of the table. 

" I was still careful, as you will observe, to 
avoid every topic strictly American, lest it might 
lead us towards politics. Knowing, as I did, that 
my host was a great connoisseur in art, and the 
owner of rare collections, and remembering that 
he lost many beautiful pictures and statues in the 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 463 

barbarism of the revolution, I opened this sub- 
ject with Madame . But on art in general I 

met no response. I then said to her, * I am very- 
glad, madame, to hear that some of your hus- 
band's rare treasures, which he lost in your 
troubles, have been returned to him ; ' feeling 
sure that that must be a matter of interest. She 
manifested not the least interest in the matter, 
and her only reply was, ' If he has recovered 
any of them, I never heard of it before.' 

" I found it impossible to keep up any conver- 
sation with her. 

'' The elegant and refined tastes of the gentle- 
man found, you will observe, no sympathy in his 
wife. She is very rich, but not a woman of cul- 
ture or polished manners, while he is a model of 
an elegant and polite French gentleman. 

'^ At one time during dinner, my host cast an 
anxious look on the lady, who, perhaps, to his 
practised eye, looked out of humor, and said very 
kindly, — what with us would be regarded as a 
breach of politeness, — ' You look very weary, my 
dear ; ' but she did not reply. She took no more 
notice of the remark than if she had been deaf. 

" On returning to the long saloon, the hostess 
and all the ladies gathered at one end of the 
room, and the gentlemen at the other. The 
entertainment then partook rather of the form 
of a lecture than conversation. The host stated 



464 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

his views on points which were then occupy- 
ing the public mind, and gave his reasons for 
them, discoursing at some length, to the great 
enjoyment of his guests. It is in this way that 
he prepares the speeches, which he afterwards 
delivers. 

" Having finished his remarks, my host turned 
to me and asked, * What, sir, is the opinion of 
American statesmen in regard to the electoral 
college system ? ' 

" That was a question I had no delicacy in an- 
swering. . ' They regard it as an utter failure, 
sir,' I replied. He then turned to a gentleman 
near him, and said, ' Mr. Secretary, note that 
statement of the American gentleman.' " 



LIFE OF CHABLES SUMNER. 465 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Wide General Information. — Talk at a Stock 
Club. — Talk on Laces. — 3Ir. Sumner and his 
little Namesake. — Interest in the Work of others. 
— Letter of Hon. G. W. Warren. 

Geeat men are too often wise only in their 
own sphere, and ignorant of all beyond it. 

Mr. Sumner was remarkable for his general 
information. Nothing escaped his eye, and no 
subject was too great or too small for his inves- 
tigations. 

Being once on a visit at the country house of 
a friend, when a '^ stock club " was to meet 
there, Mr. Sumner entered heartily into the mat- 
ter, and expressed pleasure at meeting the gen- 
tlemen. 

But he was not a listener only ; he surprised 
both host and guests by his familiarity with the 
subject, and by finally giving what amounted to a 
30 



466 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

dissertation on the various breeds of cows, and 
the varieties of cheese. He knew all about the 
English and Scotch cows, and dwelt with inter-' 
est on their marked peculiarities. He intro- 
duced to their notice a breed of Highland cows, 
of which none of the stock club had ever heard 
before. 

On another occasion, at the same house, a 
fellow-guest, one of our most honored public men 
at the Capitol, was entertaining the company with 
an account of the way in which he had been 
daped in the purchase of lace when abroad. — 
buying miserable cotton stuff in place of the rich 
fabric he wanted — by the statements of '' half- 
price " and " poverty," from the glib-tongued 
daughters of Erin, near Queenstown. 

At this Mr. Sumner took up the subject of 
lace, and went into it minutely. He described 
the different varieties, told how and where they 
were made, — from the rich altar-pieces and 
other laces of antiquity down to the manufac- 
tures of our own day. He knew the name of 
each style, and in whose possession the laces 
were which had come down as heirlooms in 
royal and noble families. 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 467 

When surprise was expressed that a gentleman 
should know so much on a subject which would 
naturally interest ladies only, he said that he 
once sat at a dinner party next Mrs. General 

F , when this subject was brought up. She 

then told him the name of the lace worn by each 
lady at table, calling his attention to the fact that 
some of the least showy were the most rare and 
expensive. After that, ho felt an interest in the 
subject, and read about laces, and examined the 
different kinds when abroad ; so that now he was 
really a judge of the article, and proof against 
imposition. 

Mr. Sumner's manner towards little children 
shows that there was a fountain of tenderness 
sealed up beneath what many regarded his stern 
and cold exterior. What he might have been, 
surrounded by family love and schooled by sweet 
home influences through life, we can only im- 
agine. 

Mr. H. Vincent Butler, of Boston, having asl?:ed 
Mr. Sumner's permission to name a little son for 
him, received the following reply : — 



468 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

"Washington, 25th February, 72. 

" Dear Mr. Butler : I have never expressed 
my gratitude that you should have thought my 
name worthy of your son, but I have not been in- 
sensible to the kindly appreciation which prompt- 
ed the parents. 

'' But pardon me. Is it right to call a child 
after a living person ? Only Avhen death has set 
its seal on a name, can it be given to another 
without peril. Who knows what may come in 
the vicissitudes of life ? But I will not follow 
these hints. 

" I have expected you for several days. Mean- 
while the days are charming. Accept my best 
wishes for the boy, and believe me, my dear sir, 
" Sincerely yours, 

" Charles Sumner." 

And so the beautiful little fellow was named 
Charles Sumner Butler ; and afterwards, when- 
ever the senator had an opportunity, he always 
asked, with much interest, " How is that boy ? " 

When this baby was about seven months old, 
he was taken by his parents to visit Mr. Sumner 
at his rooms in the Coolidge House. The sena- 
tor was engaged with his books when they en- 
tered, but arose at once, and gave them a most 
cordial greeting. He then took the babe, and 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 469 

carried it about the room in his arms, while the 
little one gazed up with infantile wonder into the 
strange but noble face of him who was so kindly- 
caressing it. He then apologized for not hav- 
ing called on the baby. 

Just then two gentlemen came in, friends of 
Mr. Sumner, to whom he said, after having in- 
troduced the parents, and holding the baby up 
towards them, " And this gentleman is Master 
Charles Sumner Butler ! " 

At this moment the senator, being unskilful in 
the art of holding babies, accidentally snapped 
the elastic cord that held the cap, against the 
little one's cheek, which made it cry out with 
pain. 

" Is that so ? " said one of the gentlemen. 
" We must admit that he has early commenced, 
like his honored predecessor, to ' cry aloud and 
spare not,' since he does not hesitate to express 
his mind in this illustrious presence." 



470 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNEE. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

Routine of Life in Washington. — Borne at Wash- 
ington. — Aunt Chloe's " God bless him I "' — Giv- 
ing Autographs. — Honor in Money Matters. — 
Tlie Malachite Table. — Tlie Hard-earned Vases. 
— Bust of Psyche. 

Mr. Sumner's tastes were elegant and refined, 
but his manner of life was remarkably simple for 
one in his public position. He rose about seven 
o'clock, breakfasted at eight, and read his letters 
and papers, and received visitors, often convers- 
ing with friends while at breakfast. 

He was remarkably prompt as a correspondent, 
answering all letters in the order of their dates, 
and very generally with his own hand. He dined 
at six o'clock, after which he conversed with his 
guests till their departure, when he put himself 
earnestly to his work, amid what seemed to oth- 
ers a wild confusion of books, papers, magazines, 
and manuscripts, but what was to him the poetry 






,y 














LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 471 

of order, as he knew where to lay his hand on 
anything he wanted. Much of Mr. Sumner's 
brain-work was done after his guests had retired. 

He was genial and pleasant with his servants, 
and courteous to all those who served or aided 
him in a higher capacity. A gentleman who was 
for two years his secretary, and companion at 
table and in the library, says he never once saw 
him out of temper. When assailed or misrep- 
resented, he seemed grieved, but never angry. 
Very frequently, in the case of a violent attack, 
he made no reply whatever. 

It is not our intention to give a full description 
of Mr. Sumner's home, nor a list of his art treas- 
ures. We shall, however, give a private letter 
from a lady who visited the senator, and was 
shown through the rooms by him, and heard de- 
scriptions and anecdotes of these things from his 
own lips, only a few weeks before his death : — 

"... We passed through La Fayette Square 
to Mr. Sumner's house. It was a lovely morning, 
so summer-like that we wondered the grass and 
flowers did not forget it was January, and peep 
out. 

" The birds were out in full force, filling the 



472 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

place of leaves on the bushes, and singing with 
all their power. There were large, smooth, 
glossy leaves, like magnolia leaves, scattered 
about the paths. 

" Mr. Sumner's house stands on a corner, the 
Arlington House on either side, making it look as 
if it were a part of the hotel. 

" When we entered, Mrs. sent up her 

card, and while the servant was gone we sat in 
the charming parlor, furnished in gold-colored 
satin, and filled with pictures and articles of 
virtu. 

" Mr. Sumner asked us, at once, up stairs into 
his study, where we found Yice-President Wil- 
son. When we entered the room, there was a 
little flurry about seating us, as the chairs were 
all filled with newspapers and manuscripts. 

" I am accustomed, as you know, to sitting on 
sermons and manuscripts of that sort in the study 
at home ; but I confess that I hesitated a little be- 
fore taking a chair already occupied by senato- 
rial speeches, public orations, and the like. 

" As soon as we were seated, Mr. Sumner re- 
turned to his re dining- chair. He was dressed in 
a rohe de chambre of dark, bluish-purple cloth, 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 473 

richly trimmed with crimson, and confined about 
the waist by a crimson cord and tassels. He is 
a grand-looking man, tall and broad-shouldered. 
He has a splendid head, crowned with what I 
should call — although I have never seen Jupiter 
— ' ambrosial locks.' His smile is very beautiful, 
lighting up his usually stern face, and melting 
away all its coldness. I never saw a face before 
which was so changed by a smile. I was par- 
ticularly struck with his hands, which were very 
white and beautifully formed. 

" Mr. Sumner had just received a letter from a 
friend, asking a favor of him. He spoke of it to 
Mr. Wilson, saying he hoped he should be able 
to arrange the matter. Mr. Wilson volunteered 
to attend to it for him, and soon left the room for 
that purpose. The large, sunny study in which 
we were, extends over the library and part of 
the dining-room. It has three windows, in one 
of Avhich hangs a beautiful transparency. There 
was a large desk in the centre of the room, and 
another by one of the windows. Photographs 
were tacked all over the walls and the doors, 
and everywhere about were lying books, books — 
papers, papers. 



474 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

"Yery soon Mr. Sumner showed us his copy 
of Pope's ' Essay on Man,' with interlined and 
marginal corrections by the author's own hand. 
We read them, and found they were improve- 
ments as well as alterations. 

" He next showed us his copy of Erasmus, with 
pen-and-ink etchings on the margin by Holbein, 

and John Bunyan's Bible. Mrs. remarked, 

that Bunyan's Psalm-book (which she owned), 
which bore his autograph and that of his wife, 
Elizabeth Bunyan, seemed to her more valuable 
than his Bible. 

'' ' I had my choice between the two when they 
were for sale, and preferred the Bible,' said Mr. 
Sumner. ' There is something about the Bible, 
you know, — his Bible, — which inclined me to it.' 

" He had the daintiest of cases for these rare 
books, into which they just fitted. He alluded 
to them, and said there was nothing like them 
made in this country. 

'' He then brought out from careful paper wrap- 
pings two small wood- cuts he had recently re- 
ceived, according to his order, from an English 
sale. 

*'One was a head of Prester John, and as I, in 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 475 

common with others, have rather a vague idea 
of this semi-mythical gentleman, I was not sur- 
prised to see a good-looking colored man. 

" The other was Salvator Rosa's ' Jonah's De- 
liverance from the Whale.' The prophet seemed 
coming out of his prison in a terrible hurry, on 
all fours. The ' great fish ' was a fearful-looking 
animal, resembhng a Japanese griffin more than 
anything else. 

'^ I remarked that the artist had carried out the 
words of the Scripture by making a great fsh 
instead of the traditionary whale. 

u i Why, was it not a whale ' ? " asked Mr. Sum- 
ner, smiling. ' I was brought up to believe it 
was a whale, and always thought it was.' 

'' I referred him to the English Bible, and felt 
surprised and glad to find that I knew one thing 
which Charles Sumner did not know ! 

" We chanced, in the course of conversation, to 
speak of ' A Week in a French Country-House,' 
when he told us that he had met Madam Sartori, 
the author of it, abroad, and was once invited to 
the house of a friend to hear her sing. She was 
at that time studying for the stage, but married 
Hr. Sartori soon after, and so never entered on 



476 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

a public career. This lady, I may remark, is the 
mother of the young man who is, at the time of 
writing, engaged to be married to the daughter 
of President Grant. 

<• Mr. Sumner then spoke of Fanny Kemble, who 
is Madam Sartori's sister. He said he knew her 
well, and that some years ago he boarded near 
her, and used to take long rides with her on 
horseback, during which they conversed much 
on the topics of the day. He said that he greatly 
admired Mrs. Kemble. 

" Mr. Sumner spoke very feelingly of Agassiz. 
He said that, when he was last in Cambridge, 
Agassiz showed him the manuscript of his 
article on the Darwinian theory, — or rather, the 
three manuscripts, — for he first dictated the 
matter to Mrs. Agassiz, then corrected and 
interlined the writing, which she afterwards re- 
wrote. This copy he corrected and added to, 
after which she made a third transcript, which 
was sent to the printer. 

*' While on this subject, Mr. Sumner said that 
Mrs. Agassiz was in entire sympathy with her 
husband in his scientific work, and rendered him 
great assistance ; and added, with much earnest- 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 477 

ness, ' She is a true woman and a true wife,' 
He had not heard till then of the gift Agassiz 
had received from his daughter, for the carrying 

out his cherished plans. When Mrs. told 

him about it, he seemed greatly pleased, and 
said, ' How happy that it came in such good 
time, while she could enjoy the pleasure of giv- 
ing and he of receiving.' He and Mrs. 

then talked of various people, and of the interests 
of the country, in a most interesting way. 

'^ Mr. Sumner was to make a speech that day ; 
but, unfortunately for us, it was in a secret ses- 
sion. We rose to leave. But he asked us to go 
doAvn stairs and wait till he should join us. 

"When he came down, he went to the library, 
opened a drawer, and showed us a Latin book of 
John Dryden's, with his name scrawled on the 
fly-leaf in a school-boy's hand. While we Avere 
examining it, Mr. Sumner told us that once, 
when he was showing it to two ladies, one of 
them looked at the writing, and exclaimed to the 
other, 'Isn't that just like our John's?' He 
showed us Wickliffe's Bible, with its long chain 
and padlock. 

" Among his valuable autographs was this most 
interesting one : — 



478 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

' If Virtue feeble were, 
Heaven itself would stoop to her. 

' Johannes Milton. 
•CoMUS, 1637.' 

" When, after showing us many other beautiful 
things, he was obliged to leave, he asked us to 
remain and look at the pictures. In the dining- 
room we saw the picture of St. Mark coming 
down with flying mantle to rescue a slave who 
was lying prostrate in the public square. He. 
had used this tradition as an illustration in one- 
of his earliest speeches, and afterwards, seeing 
the picture, had bought it. Mr. Whittier has 
made the story the foundation of a poem. In 
this room were many very beautiful pieces of 
china, and on the door leading to the china closet 
hung a picture suggestive of the place. Indeed, 
all the pictures were in keeping with the rooms 
where they hung. On the side of the stairs 
were pictures of famous stairways. In the 
study were engravings of the House of Lords, 
the French Assembly, the United States Senate, 
and heads of eminent statesmen. The richer 
pictures, with statues, elaborate tables, vases, 
and rare curiosities, were in the parlor and 
library, and presented work for more than one 
morning. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 479 

"Then we went through the hall, where a large 
Dutch clock stands at the foot of the stairs, out 
into the noisy street, and across the sunny park, 
towards the White House." 

A lady who was visiting in Washington, not 
long before Mr. Sumner's death, was talking with 
" Old Chloe," a colored woman in whom she had 
long been interested, when Senator Sumner, who 
was a ^farm personal friend, sent up his card. 
Rising, she said, " I shall not be able to talk with 
you any longer now, Chloe. Mr. Sumner is down 
stairs, and I must go to see him.'' 

Then poor Chloe broke out in rapturous strains, 
and extolled Mr. Sumner's character as the friend 
and helper of her race. " I's often wished," she 
said, " dat I could shake hands wid him, but I 
don't suppose I ever shall. I wish you would tell 
him how we all loves him, and dei;! shake hands 
wid him for me ; and tell him dat every time I 
sees him in de street, I says, ' God bless him.' " 

Those who had been present when Mr. Sum- 
ner opened his morning mail say that, amid all 
his duties, he often took time to send autographs 
to boys who had written for them. 

A young lad once came in possession of a 



480 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

" frank " of his, on a coarse ('iivclope ; Imt ho 
wanted a well- written autopraph, not imagining 
that so great a nianrtuiM write so Mindly, except 
when in liasto. S») hi- wmte tn him of the 
one he had, that he only had 8uceee<ltd in mak- 
ing it out by eonsulting a congressional directory, 
a legal friend, and the superintendent of a manu- 
facturing corporation. To this communication 
Mr. Sumner sent the following holograph note : — 

" B»)8TOX, 2l8t SoiilcmlHT, 'fil. 

"Dear Sir: I am glad you have so good a 
committeo to help you in learning to read. 
'* Faithfully yours, 

" Cii.^ftLEs Sumner." 

Ten years afterwards the recipient of the note 
reminded Mr. Sumner of the incident, where- 
upon the senator laughed heartily, and said, " I 
dechire, I was not awaro before that 1 ever said 
anything quite so Spartan as that ! " 

One of our Boston Latin School boys gives an 
account of the way in which he secured Mr. 
Sumner's autograph, thus : — 

" When returning one evening from one of the 
Lowell lectures, in the horse car, a gentleman of 
imposing appearance attracted my attention 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 481 

lie looked ad I imagined the old Roman .senators 
did. I was watcliing him closely, when it flashed 
across my mind that ho could be no other tlian 
Charles Sumner. I found I was not mistaken. 
I had always folt a great desire to see him, and 
I could not have had a better opportunity. 

" I was much interested in making a collection 
of autographs, and ^vas gof)n questioning whetiier 
nr not it wouM be rudo to ask him for his, when 
ho arose to get out of tho car. I thought, * Now 
is my time/ and immediately rushed from tho 
car, just in time to overtake him. He noticed 
mo approaching, and inquired the way to Janus 
Freeman ('larko'8 church. I said I should he 
very happy to walk to the church with him. 
Coming, just then, to a lamp-post, I asked hiiu if 
ho would bo willing to give mo his autograph. 
He answered so pleasantly, that I felt almost as 
if I had conferred a pleasure on him. Having 
a book with me, I took from it a scrap of paper, 
and with a pencil ho wrote, — 

• Yoors trnlj, 

'ClIAIlLES SlMNEtt. 

' In the Street, Nov. 17, 1873." 

" Wo then continued our way to tho churcli, ho 
31 



482 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

talking very familiarly with me. As I left him at 
the door, he shook hands with me, and lifting his 
hat, bade me ' good by,' while I scarcely realized 
that I had had a walk and talk with the ' great 
and good Sumner.' " 

Mr. Sumner did not love money enough to do 
an ungenerous thing to secure it. 

In November, 1856, Albert Sumner, who, like 
his illustrious brother, was a splendid specimen 
of a man, of noble bearing and courteous manners, 
was lost, with all his family, in the wreck of the 
Lyonnese. 

Mrs. Albert Sumner was a lady of fortune ; and 
dying without a will, her property went by law 
to her husband's relatives; but such was the 
honor of Charles Sumner, that he insisted that 
this estate, as far as it could be disentangled from 
that of his brother, should be passed over to the 
relatives of the unfortunate lady. 

Surely this was an act of noble unselfishness 
rarely met with in the world where so many — 
even men who have more money than they can 
take care of — seem playing at the game which 
children call "grab," the motto of which is, 
" Keep all you've got, and catch what you can." 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 483 

Mr. Sumner's stern principle prevented his 
living in a style beyond his means. He enjoyed 
only what he could pay for at the time of pur- 
chase. ^ One of his friends says that some years 
ago, while Mr. Sumner was living very modestly 
in the suburbs of Washington, he visited him. He 
occupied at the time a room and bedroom, and 
took his breakfast there, but dined in the city. 
He was about to pay his landlady, and holding 
out his hand towards his friend, with seven ten 
dollar gold pieces in it, he said, '' That is for my 
monthly rent and my breakfast." His guest ex- 
pressed surprise that he did not live in a little 
more style, when he replied, " The country can- 
not pay me any more, and I cannot live beyond 
my means." 

Even to the last, when he had a home of his 
own, elegantly furnished and rich with gems of 
ancient and modern art, he used the democratic 
horse-car in going to and from the Senate, and 
always, except in taking drives for pleasure, 
when he hired a carriage from a livery stable. 

A gentleman from Boston asked him, not long 
ago, why he did not keep horses. 

" Because," he replied, '' if I did so, I could 



484 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 

not indulge my taste for pictures, statuary, 
rare books, and manuscripts. I can live without 
horses, but I cannot live without the other 
things." They had become necessities with 
him. 

A lady of Boston, who was one of his most 
familiar friends, and who, with her honored hus- 
band, has been true to him through all his trials, 
was among his last visitors. In attracting her 
attention to a malachite table of rare value and 

beauty, he said, '' This, Mrs. , is the result 

of my lecture in Brooklyn, and those vases (he 
pronounced the word vazes) are the result of 
my Philadelphia lecture. He called attention to 
a Psyche, and said, " I bought that on account 
of the strong resemblance it bears to my twin 
sister ; " thus showing that he had carried the 
memory of her sweet face, as well as of her 
lovely spirit, through life with him. 

Beneath what seemed Mr. Sumner's cold and 
un impressible manner, there lay a warmth of 
heart of which we now and then catch a gleam, 
and that shows the man as he really was. 

One of those who knew him best, who was a 
confidant in hours when he threw off his public 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 485 

burdens and laid aside the veil which usually 
hung between his heart and the world, says, 
" When Mr, Sumner's brother George lay suffer- 
ing at the hospital, whither he had gone for 
treatment, and where he died, it was the senator's 
custom to visit him every morning. 

"He always entered the room with his natural 
high bearing and kingly tread, and asked in deep 
tones the usual questions, and said whatever of 
interest he had to say. He then bade the sufferer 
good morning, and went out, apparently as un- 
moved as a stone. 

"But the attendants reported that as soon as he 
had passed the screen that shielded his brother, 
his heart gave way, and he manifested deep feed- 
ing, the great tears rolling down his cheeks as 
he passed out of the room." 

He was then, doubtless, carried back to the 
days of his childhood. The statesman was lost 
in the brother: ambition for the future was 
dimmed by regrets for the past; and his sym- 
pathy for all, concentrated in a yearning desire 
to save the partner of his childhood from pain 
and death. 



486 LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

A Struggle for Life. — Opposition to the Centen- 
nial Bill. — Speech against the Bill. — Insults 
from the Projectors. — Leaves the Senate Cham- 
ber for the Last Time. — LaM Hours. — His 
Dying Charge. — Announcement of Mr. Sum- 
ner^s Death. — A Ilourning Nation. — Funeral 
at Kinfs Chapel. — Procession to 3Iount Au- 
burn. — The Closing Scene. 

Charles Sumner received his death-blow in 
1856 ; but he was long in dying. A man of 
weaker nerves, or one without a high purpose 
in life, would have yielded to the power of dis- 
ease rather than endure a slow martyrdom for 
years. But as long as there was work for him 
to do, he bravely struggled on, compelling him- 
self to undertake what was really beyond his 
strength. 

It was ill this spirit that he set himself to per- 
form what proved to be his last public act. 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 487 

As he had never learned the art — unfortunately 
easy to so many — of putting his hand into the 
public treasury, neither had he learned that of 
letting other men do so, if he knew their pur- 
pose. 

• Believing that the " Centennial Bill " was a 
huge scheme for benefiting a private corporation 
at the public expense, Mr. Sumner delivered a 
speech on the subject Friday, March 6. In the 
part we quote he was more humorous than was 
his wont: — 

" But I have something more to say — very 
briefly, however — on the way in which these 
corporators, if I may so express myself, worked 
into their present position. They came here for 
their bill ; they obtained it with the condition 
that I have mentioned — a condition openly an- 
nounced and accepted by their' representatives 
on this floor, and also in the other House ac- 
cepted fully ; and the venerable senator from 
Pennsylvania on my right was so jubilant that he 
announced at once that they would obtain the 
money without delay. Ah, sir, does not the poet 
tell us, — 

« Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows ' ? 



488 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

It was SO with them. Their morning laughed, 
and the zephyr fanned their cheeks. They were 
confident of success. They began with their 
own immediate fellow-citizens, and there they 
failed. They then turned to the States ; there 
again they failed ; and now, sir, morning no 
longer laughing, and zephyr no longer blowing, 
they turn to the United States, and ask us to as- 
sume this great expense. There should have 
been more frankness originally. If the United 
States were at any time to be called to assume 
this expense, they should have known it in ad- 
vance. 

" Nor is this all. The United States should 
have had the conduct of the whole business. It 
should not have lleen entered upon by a private 
corporation of stockholders. Permit me to say, 
in a certain sense they are usurpers ; occupying 
a supreme national function. Thus far, all world's 
fairs have been governmental in origin and con- 
duct, and I see no reason in our national condi- 
tion why we should be an exception. I do not 
find that we have facilities for massing capital 
and obtaining the means for a great world's fair 
that should make us an exception to the received 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 489 

rule and practice of other nations. The world's 
fair should have been in the hands of the nation. 

'^ And now, still further, I am about to say that, 
in my judgment, a proper celebration of the one 
hundredth natal day of the republic should have 
been by the nation, and not by any private cor- 
poration. But these private corporators have 
worked themselves into the business. The 
authentic story of the Siberian bear is revived. 
You all remember it. The bear leaped upon 
a horse, and he ate so furiously that he ab- 
solutely ate his way into the harness and drew 
the sledge. I know not if our Philadelphia bear 
has not already eaten itself into the harness. 
But has not the time come to stop ? I think 
we must give the bear notice to quit ; at least 
let him know that he cannot drag this nation 
into any world's fair." 

Monday evening, March 9, was the last time 
that Mr. Sumner conversed sociably on matters 
of the day. A writer in a Washington paper, 
who passed several hours with him, and found 
him free from actual pain, gives the following 
account of the interview : — 

'' At eight o'clock on Monday evening I made 



490 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

my last call on Senator Sumner. He greeted 
me, saying, ' I am so weary thinking over my 
speech on finance ! I wanted a change, — a ray 
of sunlight, — and I am glad you have come.' 
He at once began to talk on European politics, 
which, to him, was an outspread map, and whose 
kaleidoscopic changes he always viewed with 
absorbing interest. He spoke of Gladstone — 
his noble struggle in the cause of liberalism, 
' his success, his failure, and his fall ; he gave 
a sketch of a breakfast with him, and summed 
up by expressions of his firm faith in the ul- 
timate triumph of those principles which Glad- 
stone so nobly championed. ' A great man, under 
the shadow of defeat,' said he, ' is taught how 
precious are the uses of adversity ; and as an o£ik 
tree's roots are strengthened by its shadow, so 
all defeats in a good cause are but resting-places 
on the road to victory at last.' He spoke of the 
patchwork empire of Germany ; of Bismark and 
De la Marmora; of truth, stranger than fiction, 
viz., of the Italian statesman's assertion of Bis- 
mark's offer to cede to France a portion of German 
territory ; of the impolicy of the annexation of 
Alsace and Lorraine ; of the differences with the 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 491 

Catholic church, the imprisonment of her prelates 
— and then, taking a volume of Milton, he read, 
in deep, rich tones of tender melody, his famous 
sonnet upon the persecution of the Waldenses, 
during Cromwell's protectorate, as follows : — 

* Avenge, O Lord ! thy slaughtered saints, whose hones 

Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; 

Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, 
Forget not ; in thy book record their groans, 

W'ho were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 

Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled 
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 

To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 
O'er all the Italian fields where still doth sway 

The triple tyrant ; that from these may grow 
A hundred fold, who, having learned thy way 

Early, may fly the Babylonian woe.' 

" In closing, he added, ' Thus History revenges 
herself.' 

" About this time his evening mail was brought ; 
whenever he came to an interesting note or 
letter, he would look it over and then hand it to 
me to read. The first was from an art association 
in Boston, saying that the Duke de Montpensier, 
of Spain, had agreed to loan his valuable collec- 
tion of pictures, valued at five hundred thousand 
dollars, to the association, provided they paid 



492 LIFE OP CHAELES SUMNER. 

packing, transportation, and insurance ; and as 
the laws of the United States limit the time of 
international loan free of duty to six months, it 
needed a special act of Congress to keep the 
paintings two years, so as to pay expenses by 
their exhibition, and he desired speedy legisla- 
tion. He asked me if I had seen them when in 
Spain. I answered him, I had, and described 
several of those I remembered best. He said, 
' In the Senate I do not think there will be much 
difficulty ; but in the House,' he added, smiling, 
' Ben Butler can put it through, as he does, 
with his white horse, everything else. Why, he 
is a political Cagliostro.' 

" The next letter was from Philadelphia, an 
anonymous attack of the bitterest description, 
impugning his motives concerning his speech 
on the International Centenary Exposition, wind- 
ing up with a threat of violence, which I forbear 
to transcribe. As he handed it to me, he said, 
good humoredly, ' I am used to such letters.' I 
read it, and as I did so, consigned it to the blazing 
grate. The next letter was from Indiana ; one 
of those good, whole-souled letters, full of sym- 
pathy and admiration, with an urgent, earnest in- 



LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNEE. 493 

vitation for him to visit the writer next summer, 
and an offer of generous and unstinted hospitahty. 
' There/ said he, ' you have burned the bane, and 
here is the antidote.' His next letter was from 
Boston, full of hearty thankfulness for his restora- 
tion to health and cheer for the future. It was 
closely written, and as he handed it to me, he 
said, ' This is no summer friend.' 

" The last of many letters was one of congrat- 
ulation about the Massachusetts legislative reso- 
lutions, rescinding the vote of censure. I never 
saw him look more happy than when he was read- 
ing it. He then arose and showed me with sat- 
isfaction the legislative resolutions, beautifully 
engrossed on parchment. I asked, ' Will you ad- 
dress the Senate when they are presented ? ' 
He replied, • The dear old Commonwealth has 
spoken for me, and that is enough.' " 

Tuesday, March 10, at two o'clock, he took a 
seat in the Senate Chamber beside a brother sen- 
ator, also a prominent opponent of the Centennial 
Bill, and told him, with an evident feeling of an- 
noyance, of the offensive anonymous letters 
which had been sent him. 

His friend turned his mind from this by allud- 



494 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMXEE. 

ing to the recent action of the Massachusetts 
legislature, at which Mr. Sumner expressed great 
pleasure. 

He talked with Senator Ferry, of Connecticut, 
a fellow-sufferer from spinal disease, and told him 
of his intense pain the night before, which had 
forced him to send for his physician, who relieved 
him by injecting morphine under the skin. 

Mr. Sumner realized that day that he was go- 
ing far beyond his strength. " I want to talk with 
you about my health, for I fear I am working too 
hard," he said to a friend a few hours before he 
was attacked with the spasm which proved fatal. 

Tuesday evening he entertained a few friends 
at dinner. That was the last time he sat down 
at his table. That night the summons came for 
him to lay aside his armor, and to receive his dis- 
charge from a long and toilsome warfare. His 
friends and physicians did all that mortals could do 
to ward off the mightiest of foes — but in vain. 

There were no kindred present to smooth his 
dying pillow ; but he was not without love and 
sympathy in his parting hour. There were the 
men of mind and culture, whose hearts had been 
knit to his by common labors and sufferings in 



LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 495 

behalf of humanity ; and there were there, also, 
friends representing the race for whom he had 
lived and toiled. 

Even while dying, he still pleaded for the cause 
that was dearer to him than life. Almost his last 
words were an appeal to those about him, who 
held positions in the national councils, to consum- 
mate the last great act of justice to the colored 
race. 

Judge Hoar, of Massachusetts, who stood be- 
side his bed, received the great senator's dying 
charge, " Do not let the Civil Rights Bill fail ! " 

Solomon said, " I sleep, but my heart waketh." 
So Sumner, when lulled to sleep by necessary 
opiates, was awake to his life-work, and mur- 
mured his charge to all who had any influence in 
the government, " Don't let the bill fail ! " 

Again he begged with earnestness that the bill 
might not be lost. Judge Hoar stooped, and 
with much emotion kissed the cold hand of the 
senator. 

Again Mr. Sumner spoke, and said, '[ I should 
not regret this, if my book were finished. My 
book ! my book is not finished ; but the great ac- 
count is sealed." 



496 LIFE OF CHAELES SUMNER. 

About noon on the 11th he raised his head, 
and said to Senator Schurz, " Why ! I can't see ! 
What does this mean ? " After hours of agony 
he moaned, " I am so tired, I am so tired ! I 
can't last much longer ! " 

Just before he died, Judge Hoar gave him a 
message from Kalph Waldo Emerson, to which 
Mr. Sumner replied, with some difficulty, '' Tell 
Emerson that I love and revere him." 

To a colored friend who stood chafing his cold 
hand in the vain efibrt to restore the lost circula- 
tion, he said tenderly, " My poor Johnson, you 
can soon rest." To one who said, " I wish I 
could do something to warm your hands," he re- 
plied, " You never can." 

Being told that his friend, Hon. Samuel Hooper, 
had come, he looked at him, waved his hand, and 
said, " Sit down." 

At that moment his heart ruptured, a terrible 
convulsion shook his frame, and he was no longer 
among the living. 

The great Irish Liberator exclaimed, when he 
heard that Wilberforce was dead, " He has gone 
up to heaven with a million broken fetters in his 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 497 

hands ! " May not as much be said of our de- 
parted senator? 

When it was announced that Charles Sumner 
was dead, a pall seemed to fall over the Capitol ; 
and as the sad news flew over the wires there 
was a nation of mourners. Even his enemies 
were at peace with him now, and all differences 
were forgotten in presence of that mighty recon- 
ciler — Death. 

Previous to the removal of the remains to 
Massachusetts, appropriate funeral services were 
held in the Capitol. 

There was a continued funeral service on the 
route, and as the train neared Boston the crowds 
assembled to meet it. In the shadows of evening, 
he who had so often entered his native city in 
the triumph of success, was borne into its streets 
for the last time, in silence ; and when the pro- 
cession arrived at the State House, the remains 
were formally delivered by the committee of 
Congress into the keeping of the Governor of 
Massachusetts, and lay in state in the Doric Hall 
over the Sabbath, during which time they were 
visited by fifty thousand people. 

No funeral since that of Abraham Lincoln has 
32 



498 LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. 

been to our people so much like the burying of 
their own dead as that of Charles Sumner. 

On Monday, Boston seemed lost to everything 
but the fact that it was the burial-day of her 
great son. " 

The funeral procession, which consisted of the 
dignitaries of the State and City, moved at about 
ten o'clock down Beacon Street to King's Chapel, 
which was elaborately draped with black, relieved 
by flowers and vines. The services were con- 
ducted by Mr. Poote, pastor of the church, and 
consisted of scriptural readings, music, and a 
prayer, one sentence of which should be pre- 
served in letters of gold : " Teach us to honor only 
those who honor Thee, and to trust only those 
who put their trust in Thee." 

The shadows were beginning to fall when the 
imposing cortege reached Mount Auburn, and 
wound up the avenues and paths through which 
Charles Sumner had so often followed his dead 
with an aching heart. The personal friends of the 
deceased, with the committees of Congress and 
the Legislature, and the few surviving members of 
the class of 1830 at Harvard, gathered beside the 
open grave, while thousands of spectators stood 



LIFE OP CHARLES SUMNER. 499 

on the hillocks and all around, waiting for the 
closing scene. 

The clergyman read another portion of Scrip- 
ture, the friends around the grave joined with 
him in repeating the Lord's prayer, and then 
all that remained of this mighty man of valor was 
lowered into its silent bed, to slumber till the day 
of the great awakening. 

John G. Whittier, who loved Mr. Sumner with 
a brother's heart, wrote to a beloved friend of 
both, on hearing of his death, — 

" I was in the act of mailing this, when the 
telegram announced the death of our dear and 
noble Sumner. My heart is too full for words. 
In deepest sympathy of sorrow I reach out my 

hand to thee, and to Mr. , who loved him 

so well. 

" He has died as he wished to, at his post of 
duty, and when the heart of his beloved Massa- 
chusetts was turning towards him with more 
than the old-time love and reverence. 

" God's peace be with him." 

A few months before his death, Mr. Sumner 
met Pastor Fliedner at the resideiice of a friend. 
Their conversation turned upon war. The two 



500 LIFE OF CHAKLES SUMNER. 

gentlemen expressed their views, which closely 
agreed, on the barbarity of war, and the great 
wrong in nations, professedly Christian, perpet- 
uating it, in the light of the nineteenth century. 
At parting, they clasped hands, when Pastor 
Fliedner said, " I hope we shall meet in the 
land of peace ! " " Let us hope so ! " replied 
Mr. Sumner, in those deep tones which gave 
such power to every utterance of his. 

The Germans have added another beatitude to 
those given by our Lord in the sermon on the 
mount : " Blessed are the homesick, for they 
shall reach home." May we not say of Charles 
Sumner, who followed the apostolic injunction, 
" Seek peace and ensue it ; " " Blessed is the 
peace-lover, for he has reached the land of 
peace " ? 



^FI>ENDIX. 



A. 

As showing the kind of influence under which the children 
of Sheriff Sumner were brought up, we insert below a paper 
written by one of the daughters, at the age of sixteen, a year 
before her death. 

The delicate conscientiousness which is here seen also 
formed a striking characteristic of Charles Sumner. 

"Mat 1, 1836. 

" It is now nearly a year since I first wrote my character ; and 
the self-examination necessary for it, I found so useful, that I 
will try it again. I have hoped, and even believed sometimes, 
that that fault (vanity), which was so predominant in my 
character then, was partly cured ; but in the very act of al- 
lowing that thought to take possession of my. mind, I was, 
perhaps, indulging the very thought which has given me so 
much distress, and throwing myself off my guard when 
temptation should arise. 'Watch and pray therefore.' I 
have done these, but not enough, and my mind is still far too 
much engrossed with the follies and vanities of the world. I 
have too great a desire to appear well, and I fear, to show off 
how much I know. It is hard to own this to myself; but I 
have need of being humbled. 

" I have not enough moral courage — courage to tell the sim- 
ple truth at all times, and in spite of everybody. I have not 
guarded this carefully enough, and vanity is at the bottom 
here. I thought I was conscientious, I had been so often 
told so, and my vanity persuaded me to believe it, at least in 

part. 

^ (5011 



502 APPENDIX. 

' ' I have a groat lack of charity, that virtue which I feel 
should be exercised towards me. My own failings should 
teach me this. Prejudice and pride, too, form a part of my 
character. I am still sometimes cross and fretful, and I fear 
my temper is not at all improved. My own selfishness shocks 
me, sometimes. 

" The only thing in which I have improved this past year, is 
that I have a greater desire to grow good, and I am more 
thoughtful and watchful. I have wept and prayed over these 
faults; and will they never be eradicated? Must I always 
endure this state of anxiety, this longing for pure feelings? 
I will persevere, for I know that He who has helped me so 
far, will continue his aid. 

" How much reason I have to be thankful for my long illness 
and the moments of delighful intercourse with God which I 
then enjoyed, and how grateful ought I to be for being kept 
so long from the enticements which we are subject to, who 
mix with the world. But I have not improved it enough. 
How happy should I be if I had ! I fear that when I am 
again well, all the impressions which my sickness has given 
me will vanish like a mist. Ungrateful shall I be if they do. 

" This is what I am just at sixteen." 



A lady who was intimate with Mrs. Sumner says that she 
remembers talking with her one day about her son after he 
had received his injuries from Brooks, and saying, " How 
proud I should be if I had such a son ! " " Yes," was the re- 
ply, " but I tremble." 

Speaking of the father, the lady said that he would some- 
times buy tickets to lectures on useful subjects, and give them 
to his children, with the remark, "I shall be busy myself 
this evening, and I wish you, when you return, to give a cor- 
rect account of what you hear." In such ways he cultivated 
in them habits of attention, and the power of communicating 
what they knew. 



APPENDIX. 503 



B. 



The following letter, written by Mr. Sumner, just on the 
eve of his setting sail for Europe, in 1837, was addressed 
to one of his sisters, then a little girl. It reveals the future 
man. 

" My dear : 

" I don't remember that I ever wrote you a letter. I feel 
confident, however, that your correspondence cannot be very 
extensive ; and, therefore, I may flatter myself that what I write 
you will be read with attention, and, I trust, also, deposited 
in your heart. Before trusting myself to the sea, let me say 
a few words to you, which shall be my good by. I have 
often sx)oken to you of certain habits of personal care, which 
I will not here more particularly refer to than by asking you 
to remember all that I have told you, and to endeavor to 
follow my advice. I am very glad, my dear, to remember 
your cheerful countenance. I shall keep it in my mind, as I 
travel over the sea and land, and hope that when I return, 
I may still find its pleasant smile ready to greet me. Try 
never to cry. But, above all things, do not be obstinate or 
passionate. If you find your temper mastering you, always 
stop till you can count- sixty, before you say or do anything. 
Let it be said of you that you are always amiable. Love your 
fatlier and mother, and brothers and sisters, and all your 
friends ; cultivate an afFectionate disposition. If you find that 
you can do anything which will add to the pleasure of your 
parents, or anybody else, be sure to do it. Consider every 
opportunity of adding to the pleasure of others as of the 
highest importance, and do not be unwilling to sacrifice some 
enjoyment of your own, even some dear plaything, if, by doing 
so, you can promote the hapi)iness of others. If you follow 
this advice, you will never be selfish or ungenerous, and 
everybody will love you. Besides this, my dear, always 
tell the truth. Nobody was ever hurt who told the truth ; 



504 APPENDIX. 

while many who told falsehoods have been struck down, like 
Ananias and Sapphira, whose history you have undoubtedly 
read in the Acts of the Apostles. If you have ever done 
anything wrong, always tell of it at once, and your parents 
and God will forgive you ; whereas, they never will if you try 
to conceal it, or tell a falsehood with regard to it. 

"Study all the lessons given you at school, and when at 
home, in the time when you are tired of play, read some good 
books which will help to improve the mind. If you follow all 
this advice you will be amiable, good, and happy, and will 
contribute very much to the happiness of others. Let me 
know, on my return from Europe, that you have followed all 
my dull advice. I should feel grieved very much if I should 
understand that you had not followed it. If you will let 
Horace read this letter, it will do the same, perhaps, as one 
addressed to him, and perhaps he will follow my advice. Give 
my love to mother, and Mary, and the rest. 

"Your alTectionate brother, Chas." 

" ASTOK House, Dec. 7, 1837." 



BULLETIN OF RECENT BOOKS. 



LITERARY ITEMS. 

fN no way can money be better invested for 



1 



the young than in good books. They fur- 



r.ish the best of all good company, and are a 

safeguard against temptation to evil. No 

series of books have been more eagerly read 
and widely commended than the $1000 Prize 
Series of sixteen elegant volumes published 
by D. Lothrop & Co., Boston. Dr. Lincoln 
says. "They meet the want of the day for 
books which instruct and improve while they 

fascinate the reader." The 55°° Prize 

Series, issued by D. Lothrop & Co., Boston, 
are books that have a standard reputation 
for excellence, and that have everywhere 
proved among the most popular additions to 
the library. First Series, 8 vols., $12 ; second 

Series, 13 vols., $16.75 The Old Stone 

House is one of those sweet stories whose 
pathos touches the heart, and whose charac- 
ters linger in the memory to ennoble life. 

Walter M.^cdon.ald is a deservedly 

popular book. Not a few strange and strik- 
ing events are wrought into the intensely in- 
teresting narrative, and the motive underlying 
all is high and Christian. The Wads- 
worth Boys is not sensational, but thought- 
ful, pleasant, and wholesome ; truly exalting 
whatever is noble, and putting under ban 
whatever is mean, though seemingly respect- 
able. The Hon. George T. Angell i^y^. 

Striking for thb Right, price, $1.75, for 
which the unequalled premium of $1000 was 
given, " is undoubtedly tile best book of the 
kind in the world." Henry Bergh says, "I 
wish it were in my power to place it in the 
hand of every man, woman, and child in the 

land, as.it deserves to be." Silent Tom, 

the second book of the J 1000 prize series, is 
no less popular than the first, The story is 
startling, and told with great pov/er. It is a 
picture of the life of our time, and will hold 
readers with a magnetism they cannot resist. 
The Boston Daily Traveller S3.ys, "It is 
quite as well written, as piire and good in its 
teachings, and whoever reads ope will be 
anxious to read the other, and he who reads 
both will have read two of the best juvenile 
Stories of the season-" 



Opinions Expressed. 

Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood. By 
Geo. Macdonald, LL. D. Boston : D. Lolli- 
rop & Co. i6mo. pp. 590. The Seaboard 
Parish, A Sequel to Annalsof aQuiet Neigh- 
borhood, same author and publishers. i6mo. 
pp. 624. " Bring out the author's special Llici- 
ties of style, his clear insight into character, 
his warm sympathy with whatever is excel- 
lent and beautiful in life, his pity for all suf- 
ferers, and his high appreciation of the hum- 
ble, devout, and unselfish piety that thrives 
often among the poor and lowly, whose daily 
work taxes them with duties near the earth, 
but whose thoughts and aspirations keep 
them in constant fellowship with the skies." 
— MTorn ittg Sia r. 

Kitty Kent's Troubles. By Julia A. 
Eastman. D. Lothrop & Co., publishers, 
Boston. Price, S1.50- "All readers of 
'The School Days of Beulah Romney,' by 
Julia A. Eastman, will be glad to welcome 
'Kitty Kent's Troubles,' another book from 
the same author, and of equal interest and 
power. It belongs in the highest class of 
books for the youth and the family, and Mr. 
Lothrop is fortunate in securing writers who 
are doing much to elevate our juvenile litera- 
ture. The story is a fascinating one, full of 
human and tenderest pathos, showing the 
folly of home government by authority with- 
out love, and how love can make sunshine 
in the heart when the life is hard and un- 
comfortable. We pity any one who can read 
it without longing to lead a noble life, in sym- 
pathizing with those in trouble, and speaking 
words of good cheer to the despondent. Kitty 
Kent and her sister are genuine girls, but we 
wish all girls had as good stuff in them." — 
Boston youmal. —- — "The book shows 
a generous sympathy with girl-life in all its 
moods and tenses, and is exceptiopal for i;.~. 
literary excellence." — r Tlie Advance. 
" Such books are a rarity." — Chr. Era. 

" By offering high prizes for manuscripts 
Messrs. D. Lothrop & Co. have secured 
many works and series of works of great ex- 
cellence, which all classes of intelligent read- 
ers can enjoy and profit by." — JVatchmati 
an4 Reflector, 



NOTES. 

TXTE invite special attention to the follow- 
* * ing choice books in sets : Shell Cove 
Series, 4 vols. ; Will Phillips Library, 
4 vols. ; The Staniford Series, 4 vols. 
^1.50 per vol. These are peculiarly enter- 
taining and instructive books for Boys. Four 
sets of elegant books, as follows, deserve 
special commendation, as interesting and 
excellent reading for Girls : The Talbu- 
Rv Girls Library, 4 vols. ; Annie May- 
lie Series, 4 vols. ; The Sister Eleanor 
Series, 4 vols.; Our Daughter's Libra- 
ry, 4 vols., ;gi.5o each; and we would not 
forget to call attention to The Ridgemont 
Series, by Julia A. Eastman, author of the 
giooo prize story, " Striking for the Right," 
3 vols., $1.50 each. T/ie Contributor ^ly^ 
the publishers of these books maintain the 
position they have chosen, that no book of 
theirs shall be without its very practical and 
useful lesson. — -The Evening RpsT Se- 
ries, three U-$o vols., by L. L.. in which 
a succession of surprises keep the reader's 
interest at high tension. Original in style, 
the author opens a new vein, and works it 

with singular success. Little Ben 

Hadden Series, 4 vols. ; Hartz Boy's 
Library, 4 vols. ; Young Ladies Libra- 
ry, 4 vols. ; Pro and Con Series, 4 vols., 
and the Rose and Millie Library, 4 vols., 
are "very elegant $1.25 volumes, conveying 
valuable lessons for all. " The Boston Daily 
Advertiser adds, " The same may be said of 

all of D. Lothrop & Co.'s publications." 

The Allie Bird Series, 3 vols., $1.00 each, 
by Ella Farman, are singularly fresh and 
delightful books for girls. Child Life Se- 
ries, Drifting Anchor Series, Sea 
and Shore Series, each containing five 
jSi.oo vols. Attractive and wholesome books 
for the young make very desirable additions 
to the home library. Bill Riggs Libra- 
ry, 4 vols.. Home Sunshine Series, 6 vols., 
May and Tom Library, 5 vols., Sturdy 
Jack Series, 6 vols.. Sailing Order Se- 
ries, 4 vc,!s., Uncle Max Library, 4 vols., 
hi very tasty and elegant binding, and teach- 
ing tlie best lessons in the most attractive 
way, are sold at the moderate price of 75 cts. 



per volume. The Sunny Dell Series, 

5 vols., and The Companion Series, 3 vols., 
60 cts. each, are bright and excellent books 

for the children. The Victory Series 

for Boys, 6 vols., and The Victory Series 
for Girls, 6 vols., are very fully Ulustrated, 
and- teach lessons which will help the little 

ones live true hves. Little Three Year 

Old Library, 3 vols., are very charming 
illustrated books. By authors of high rep- 
utation. Little People's Library, 

12 vols., are very beautiftil 30 ct. books, with 
Chrome on cover. The S. S. Times says, 
" They are of that kind that never get old, 
and which can never be too widely circulat- 
ed." — — Spring Blossom Library, twelve 
30 ct. vols., with 120 illustrations, are filled 

with charming and instructive stories 

The 25 ct. books published by D. Lothrop 
& Co. are deservedly the most popular, and 
they are larger and more fully illustrated 
than any others in the market. Thirty-seven 
different volumes, in beautiful binding, with 
Chrome en cover. Some of them are put up 
in boxes, as follows: Happy Hour Stories, 
6 vols.. Pictures and Stories, 6 vols.. De- 
lightful Stories, 8 vols.. Chimney Cor- * 

NER Stories, 4 vols. Pictures and 

Songs for the Little Ones is the best and 
best selling book published at 25 cts. Any 
of the above books sold separately. 



Commendatory. 

"The public appreciate the efforts made 
by Messrs. D. Lothrop & Co. to elevate the 
standard of literature for the young. The 
publications of no other house have a greater 
popularity or wider circulation. "— .5i?jifo« 
Daily Journal. 

" Messrs. D. Lothrop & Co. are publish- 
ing some of the most interesting and charm- 
ing books for our youth, and employ the very 
best writers to secure that end." — Provi- 
detice Press. 

"The general and emphatic approval given 
by the press generally to the issues of this 
publishing firm, makes the imprint a satisfac- 
tory guarantee that the books issued from it 
have both character and interest. Both these 
qualities belong in a high degree to their 
latest publications." — Morning Star. 



BULLETIN OF RECENT BOOKS. 



LITERARY ITEMS. 

"O EV. Dr. Day's book entitled African 
-•-^ Adventure and Adventurers, fully 
illustrated, is ready. An epitome of the elab- 
orate works of Speke, Grant, Baker, and 
Livingstone, it presents the salient points 
of each in a clear, comprehensive, and at- 
tractive manner. All who read it praise it. 

Broken Fetters is an attractive and 

effective book, by the author of Evening 
Rest, and Branches of Palm. It is sufficient 
to say it has been pronounced by competent 
critics superior to either of his previous books. 

Davy's Jacket, by Hetta L. Ward, 

is charming, portraying both the inner and 

outer phases of young life. All who have 

read A Little Woman, and Grandma Crosby's 
Household, will be glad to learn more about 
Kinnie Crosby, Allie and Jack Grimke, in A 

Girl's Money, now ready. In A Little 

Woman, Christian energy is very pleasantly 
set forth in a story that has not a heavy par- 
agraph. Myths and Heroes, by S. F. 

Smith, D. D., is very interesting and instruc- 
tive, and richly worth the attention of intel- 
ligent readers, younger and older. Mv 

Mates and I forcibly exhibits the contrasted 
results of lives which are and those which are 
not animated by a Christian faith and pur- 
pose. — — Mrs. A. E. Porter's new book, 
Millie Lee, is fully equal to any of her 
previous works. The incidents are skilfully 
put, the heroine enlists one's sympathy 
throughout, and the moral is impressive. — 
Sailing Orders, by Mrs. Geo. Gladstone, is 
full of the very odor of the sea, and of the 

spirit of devotion to the Great Captain. 

Annette L. Noble has written an interesting 
story, entitled St. Augustine's Ladder. 

Wonders near Home, with numerous 

illustrations by W. Houghton, is very enter- 
taining and instructive, — a helper to teachers 
and young peojjle. It shows that one need 
not go far from home to find natural wonders 

if the eyes are open to see. Some of the 

finest character-painting is to be found in 
Pansy's new book, Wise and Otherwise. 
There is a wondrous freshness and vitality 

appearing on every page. Little Three- 

Vear-Old is written in just the style to suit 



the little ones, whose verdict is, that "it's 
splendid." It is from the pen of Mrs. C. E. 

K. Davis. The Mystery of the Lodge, 

and Good Work, are two new and very ex- 
cellent books, by that very excellent and 

well-known writer, Mary Dwinell Chellis. 

The author of that fresh and spirited story, 
Fabrics, has favored the public with another 
volume, entitled Finished or Not. For 
thoughtful and appreciative young people it 
will have a special charm and large value. 

Will Phillips is for wide-awake boys. 

It shows how an academy pupil may be voted 
"a real good fellow " by the most audacious, 
and at the same time be so true to the Great 
Master as to impress all with the presence and 

power of the godly element. Faithful, 

but not Famous, is a finely written story, 
by the author of Soldier Fritz, Maggie's Mes- 
sage, and Helen's Victory. It gives a most 
interesting view of the early progress of 

Protestantism in France. Ivy Fennha- 

VEN pictures no unattainable ideal. It takes 
imperfect character and portrays its struggles, 
its developments, and its triumphs. Lit- 
tle Wavie, the dear little foundling, will 
find an asylum in many a loving heart. 
Some books are forgotten. We don't think 

any one will forget Little U'avie. The 

School Days of Beulah Romney is pro- 
nounced, by one of our most experienced and 
competent teachers, tlie best boaninig-school 

story ever published. The Romneys of 

RiDGEMONT, by the same author, is intensely 

alive in every paragraph. Kitty Kent's 

Troubles, to be issued in a few days, will 
increase this author's reputation. She has 
already won fame and money as the writer of 
the ^looo prize story, "Striking for the 

Right." The Noble Printer, a tale of 

the first printed Bible, will be read. It de- 
picts, with force and vividness, the life-long 

struggle of Guttenberg. Annie Maylie 

is one of the best stories for young people. 
As a Sunday School book it could scarcely be 

improved. Zion's Herald &:\y% The Luck 

OF Alden Farm is one of the most successful 
books for the young, by one of the best religious 
writers of the day. Grace Avery's In- 
fluence is a book that will strongly call to a 
life that has both nobility and beauty in it. 



^/-^ ^ 



NOTES. 

IN Sunset Mountain, Mrs. Porter, who 
is never feeble, or wanting in a high aim, 
pictures the life and scenery that make a New 
England village noticeable, and give to its 
personages an interest that is real and endur- 
ing. The preaching of The Marble 

Preacher (one of the celebrated 5iooo priie 
stories) is most truthful, telling, and success- 
ful. Ben's Boyhood is a real, life-like 

story. Little people will {et pleasure and 

profit out of it. Petkk's Strange 

Story, unusual in its plan, and vfTective in 
its presentation, blends a touching pathos and 

a wholesome moral lesson. Nora, the 

Flower-Cirl — a simple, sweet story for 
the wee ones — is fitted to awaken the charity 

of the strong for the weak. CokilNC to 

the Light sets forth the methods by which a 
soul fihda its way to the higher plane, where 
light from above falls freely upon the pathway. 

Margaret Worthington is written 

with a thorough appreciation o< the quiet, 
modest, womanly, but heroic spirit, in which 
fidelity to the claims of the gosi>el sometimes j 
gets itself cmbo<lied in s>xial and domestic | 
lil'e, and which this young girl so l>cautifully | 

and forcibly illustrates. Eve.ning Rest is 

One of the roost original stories in S. S. lite- 
rature. It opens a new vein, and works It 

with wonderful success. How and Why 

considers practical questions relating to the 
Bible. It is a vital subject vivaciously treated. 
The 5iooo Prize Scries comprise si.xttcn cU- 
gaut volumes, and are pronoiuiced by the 
examining committee. Rev. r>rs. Lincoln, 
Day, and Rankin, superior to any similar 
scries. The f 500 Prize Series, issued by D. 
Lothrop & Co., have a standard reputation 
for excellence, and have everywhere proved 
among the most popular .idditions to the 
Sunday School Library. First scries, 8 vols., 

f 12.00: second series, 13 vols., $16.75. 

Ester Rutn. Julia Ried, The King's 
Daughtbh, Wise and Otherwise, and 
Three Peovle, by Pansy, published by D. 
Lothrop & Co., Boston, price, f 1.50 each, 
are books that do not belong to the average 
class of juveniles, and the author is no mere 
commonplace writer of religious fiction. 



Opinions of the Press. 

Striking for the Right, by Julia A. 
Eastman, for which the unequalled premiutn 
of J 1000 was given. Boston: D. Lothrop & 
Co. The S^ring/it-l(i Re/>iil>lkan5:iy% "Here 
arc beautiful sentiments, whose price is al jve 
gold. The lx)ok is bright, and witty, and 
wise. We give it our hearty praise." The 
.?. .?. Times says, " It is a thorough speci- 
men of the ideal volume for juveniles." The 
Boston Jouriuxl says, " It peri'etually puts 
God and duty and soul-culture into the very 
heart of its sketches and lessons." Of the 
second book in the scries, the // 'atchtnan <Sj* 
Rejiector says, "Silent Tom is the title of 
one of D. Lothrop & Co.'s new books, and it 
takes rank among the besi of the always ex- 
cellent issues of this enteqirising house. The 
aim of the book is high, its teaching is not 
less effective for being indirect, and it honors 
true religion as much .as it exalts literary art." 

Kitty Kent's Troubles. By Julia A. 
Eastman. The S. S. Times says, " A well- 
meant and well-managed story, such as we 
have here, is just the thing for the Sunday 
School. Its literary merit is very great, as 
the author is careful to preserve a sustained 
and graceful style throughout the narration." 
The Episcopal Register says " This is an 
attractive and vigorous story from a writer 
who h.\5 won both fame and money by the pre- 
vious productions of her pen, and is issued in 
Messrs. D. Lothrop & Co. 's usual fine style. 
The lesson of Kitty Kent's life is, that the 
only road to happiness lies through the land 
of goodness, and that the sovereign of this 
land is the bles.sed Saviour. " 

Anna Mavlib. By Ella Farman. Bos- 
ton : D. Lothrop & Co. Price, $1.50. The 
Rural Carolina says, "A story of earnest 
religious work, and is pervaded by a spirit 
of sweetness and pathos which must touch 
every heart." The /* V/w«j says, "As a Sun- 
day Schot>l book, it could scarcely be im- 
proved." "Xhc Boston JoumAl ix<j\, "On its 
literary side it is a sujicrior protluct. But 
the excellence and the charm lie chiefly in the 
pure, high-toned, gracious and stimulating 
religious spirit that pervades the entire work." 
Tlie Chr. Register .says, " The story is well 
told, touching, and helpful." 



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